Bangkok fights smog with free public transport for a week

[black tabby12345]

One-Off measure.

Just like their occasional small money handout for Vote Buying.

The most guilty party for ever worsening air quality in the capital of the kingdom: Pheu Thai.

 

Encouraged more people to buy cars(even to  the low, during its previous administration before military takeover in 2014).

 

Resultingly, once eased smog(and road congestion) situation reverted back to the state before BTS and subway came into service(to reduce air pollution and traffic jamming).

 

 

 

 

[thesetat]

7 hours ago, jcmj said:

And there is the bandaid that they are going to try to use and if/when it doesn’t work then they will try something else. Every year is getting worse and they still only react to the issues once they become a problem. 

That is not a bandaid even... Tell someone to choose between standing on the street or on a platform and wait for public transportation free in the smog and heat or drive their nice air-conditioned car and they will ultimately choose their car. This is not even a choice to most people who own a car. The only people it will help are those making little to no money who usually take the public transportation already.  

[JAS21]

Well, we live on the border of BKK and Nonthaburi ... just now AQI/2,5ppm is 174/92. Have been looking around to find s0omewhere to go to to get away from this but it looks like similar condition over the whole country ...info from Air Visual App. Wonder how much difference the weeks free public transport will make ... probably sfa.

[Caldera]

Nice one. I tapped my Rabbit card on the BTS today as per usual, and they didn't deduct any money - all my fares were 0 baht.

[Liverpool Lou]

3 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

What is that supposed to be...Bangkok and a rear-engined bus with exhaust emitting directly over the driver's seat?

[JimHuaHin]

Another useless band-aid proposal.

[Burma Bill]

On 1/24/2025 at 11:56 AM, webfact said:

to tackle Bangkok’s persistent smog problem by offering free rides on the BTS, MRT, and BMTA buses for seven days

 

Have I missed the point?

 

Surely one must leave home and breath in the polluted air to reach a railway station or bus stop?

[kiwikeith]

On 1/24/2025 at 12:13 PM, Geoffggi said:

I cannot foresee the Bangkok Hi-So population giving up their personal means of transport for a public mode of transportation .....LOL

They could always use Mercedes buses for them, with no CNG. 

[ikke1959]

4 hours ago, VR333 said:

Free public transport... nice idea, but with trains on the blue line already so crowded, I think I will take a taxi to my destination next week, to avoid the crush 🙂

Not only the blue line is so crowded.. All the lines are but that is again because the Government never invest in longer metro's or better public transport.. More people with the BTS were do they have to put them??

[brewsterbudgen]

2 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

What is that supposed to be...Bangkok and a rear-engined bus with exhaust emitting directly over the driver's seat?

 

I'll ask ChatGPT...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

8 hours ago, Caldera said:

Nice one. I tapped my Rabbit card on the BTS today as per usual, and they didn't deduct any money - all my fares were 0 baht.

 

The wife and I rode BTS Green Line this afternoon, and it was far more rammed than usual. Sardine can like inside.

 

For those wondering.... at least the process we encountered on the BTS Line ... patrons wanting to take advantage of this deal also can just walk up to the ticket counter and the staff there will give you a single use ticket.... You don't need to tell them where you're going, as the ones they're handing out apparently are generic. Worked just fine outbound and then returning on our trip this afternoon.

 

FWIW, the wife and I both have Rabbit cards that we normally use, but we didn't try using them as we normally would today. Used the free tickets instead. So I can't confirm yes or no whether tapping the Rabbit card this week will or won't result in the normal charge.

 

 

[isaanistical]

15 hours ago, Captor said:

No, not the first time. And it did not help last tme as well. And not next year too.

But this time it's PAO elections at the weekend.

 

As it happens, the air-quality indices are showing greater BKK as worse affected than the rest of the country by the filthy air, so there is some sense in it. What the ###, it's a free week's transport. I'm going to explore all the new lines I've never been on. Khlong Bang Phai here we come!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I'm all in favor of public transit for many reasons, so I can't quibble with this one-week promotion.

 

But as others have pointed out above, this latest measure -- like most of the rest of the recent anti-air pollution measures the Thai government has undertaken or talked about undertaking -- will do little to nothing to lessen the current choking levels of PM2.5 that are occurring.

 

While internal combustion vehicles certainly do create pollution, they do so year-round. What's making the situation drastically worse now is a combination of the weather conditions and, most importantly, the illegal seasonal agricultural burning both in Thailand and adjoining countries...

 

Illegal burning that Thailand's authorities simply ignore most of the time. And when they rarely do talk about combating it as a cause, it's only when air pollution conditions get really bad... But in reality, on the ground, they pretty much do next to nothing meaningful.

 

[tjintx]

Bangkok really needs to start thinking outside of the bus.

[lordgrinz]

12 minutes ago, tjintx said:

Bangkok really needs to start thinking outside of the bus.

 

Maybe public lynching's of farmers, or anyone else caught burning? What these burners are doing is killing people, so call it Karma.

[Caldera]

33 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

For those wondering.... at least the process we encountered on the BTS Line ... patrons wanting to take advantage of this deal also can just walk up to the ticket counter and the staff there will give you a single use ticket.... You don't need to tell them where you're going, as the ones they're handing out apparently are generic. Worked just fine outbound and then returning on our trip this afternoon.

 

FWIW, the wife and I both have Rabbit cards that we normally use, but we didn't try using them as we normally would today. Used the free tickets instead. So I can't confirm yes or no whether tapping the Rabbit card this week will or won't result in the normal charge.

 

If you enjoy queuing up, by all means. Sane people will just use their Rabbit cards as per usual and will find out what I've reported (= it's free as well).

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

20 minutes ago, Caldera said:

 

If you enjoy queuing up, by all means. Sane people will just use their Rabbit cards as per usual and will find out what I've reported (= it's free as well).

 

Curiously, there were no queues at the ticket counters today at either end of our BTS Green Line trip. Both at BTS stations that normally are very busy with queues in part because they do a lot of tourist trade.

 

Probably because, no one today, unlike usual, was having to pay any money, make change, get receipts, top-up Rabbit cards at the counter etc etc...  Just walk up and they hand you a generic single-use ticket, and you're gone!

 

PS - I wasn't disputing what you reported about using your Rabbit card... Just saying for the record, we used a different method, which worked equally well. Especially as not everyone has or uses Rabbit cards.

 

[DonniePeverley]

Roads were still very busy. 

 

Still shocking to see red busses blowing black smoke still on the roads though.

 

How difficult would be to ensure not one of them busses blowing smoke was not allowed on a road ?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 minute ago, DonniePeverley said:

Roads were still very busy. 

 

Still shocking to see red busses blowing black smoke still on the roads though.

 

How difficult would be to ensure not one of them busses blowing smoke was not allowed on a road ?

 

I'm trying to calculate, just how many times I've read here over many years and many seasons that the authorities are / were inspecting all the public buses to ensure that they're not violating pollution standards????

 

I think, I can't count that high without the aid of a calculator... And yet.... 

[DonniePeverley]

What's the issue though with keeping those red busses going?

 

I am aware they are public busses - but is it going to be that expensive or destructive to tell them to clear off? 

 

Or is it something else?

 

You would literally only need someone to stand on Sukhumvit or Silom and see them going past. You could stop them straight away and clear them off. 

[NativeBob]

48 minutes ago, DonniePeverley said:

How difficult would be to ensure not one of them busses blowing smoke was not allowed on a road ?

Those measures took place [say] 20-something years ago. Traffic police officers stoped anything on the road and checked CO2 with some weird stick up those exhausts, It didn't last long enough though. 

Tuk-tuks. trucks, crazy green buses etc. No outcome at all, they are still here, There's something beyond the power of government of Bangkok obviously.

[Burma Bill]

14 hours ago, lordgrinz said:

 

Maybe public lynching's of farmers, or anyone else caught burning? What these burners are doing is killing people, so call it Karma.

 

Not just farmers and others caught burning. Why not include drivers of buses, trucks, cars and SRT diesel locomotives that belch out black smoke around Thailand?

[BangkokReady]

On 1/24/2025 at 2:00 PM, JemJem said:

Is this the very first time such a decision has been made for Bangkok? I mean, this 'free public transport due to air pollution'. I cannot recall one from before, but, of course it may have happened. 

 

Has it been this bad before?

[BangkokReady]

On 1/25/2025 at 8:51 AM, Clarkey611 said:

I asked one of my colleagues yesterday, whether she would be using the BTS next week? Unfortunately, she said "no", as there were too many Chinese tourists using the system and she did not want to pick up a disease!

 

Foreigners: bad.  Thai pollution: good.  🙄

[brewsterbudgen]

15 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

 

Has it been this bad before?

Yes, just as bad in previous years.  But in the past there wasn't so much coverage on social media especially Tiktok.