Chiang Mai Bus Service? Where/when?

[whopper]

I saw a billboard with pictures of the new busses a few weeks back, but after a few days it disappeared. Any info regarding the above question would be helpfull.

[sabaijai]

They seem to be missing in action. The city supposedly bought and paid for 26 of them, and they were supposed to finish a trial run by April or May 05. No one I know has seen any evidence of the buses yet.

[sabaijai]

I have an update on this, courtesy of a CMU professor I had dinner with this evening. He says the 26 buses were purchased but never put into service because of protests by the rot daeng mafia. All 26 are currently parked at the muncipality office now, according to him.

What he couldn't answer was why the thetsabaan bothered to buy the buses without realising first that the rot daeng crowd would never go for the idea.

[ovenman]

What he couldn't answer was why the thetsabaan bothered to buy the buses without realising first that the rot daeng crowd would never go for the idea.

It's not like this same thing hasn't been a problem (repeatedly) in the past. I imagine the buses were purchased anyway so the promised kickbacks/commissions would get received by all the vested interests.

[whopper]

What he couldn't answer was why the thetsabaan bothered to buy the buses without realising first that the rot daeng crowd would never go for the idea.

It's not like this same thing hasn't been a problem (repeatedly) in the past. I imagine the buses were purchased anyway so the promised kickbacks/commissions would get received by all the vested interests.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Amazing Thialand!!!!......The TAT should try to promote the Rot Daeng as some sort of tourist attraction

I have a bad feeling, the next scandal will be "where are the busses and who took the money"?. choke dee naw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cdnvic]

I have an update on this, courtesy of a CMU professor I had dinner with this evening. He says the 26 buses were purchased but never put into service because of protests by the rot daeng mafia. All 26 are currently parked at the muncipality office now, according to him.

Thanks for the update. Nice to see there's still people in high places fighting hard to keep Thailand firmly in the third world. Can't believe the city is being held hostage to these motorized peasants.

cv

[sabaijai]

I have an update on this, courtesy of a CMU professor I had dinner with this evening. He says the 26 buses were purchased but never put into service because of protests by the rot daeng mafia. All 26 are currently parked at the muncipality office now, according to him.

Thanks for the update. Nice to see there's still people in high places fighting hard to keep Thailand firmly in the third world. Can't believe the city is being held hostage to these motorized peasants.

cv

Yes, talking to the Thais living here, you see no one is happy with the rot daeng situation. Chiang Mai residents complain endlessly about their clogging of the roadways, stopping every 10 meters, badly tuned engines, etc. 9 out of 10 drive empty most of the time, just burning diesel and creating traffic.

And yes it goes without saying the buses were purchased to collect the cream of the transaction, as well as to create a face of 'solving the problem'. The thetsabaan can say that 'at least we tried', shifting the blame to the songthaew mafia. The original system was put in place by an earlier generation of Chiang Mai police many of whom are retired now but still receive regular payments. They share these with younger police on active duty who, in the current anti-corruption climate, might not be comfortable accepting money directly from the songthaew mafia.

My professor friend called it a case of ดินพอกหางหมู - 'dirt piled up on/plastering the pig's tail', i.e., a problem that has gone on so long it's almost impossible to solve.

There's another saying about Chiang Mai specifically, that our city ปราบเซียน (roughly 'suppresses genius'), meaning it's still run by country folk and that's the way they like it.

[Tywais]

When I first moved to Chiangmai several years ago there was bus service, then after awhile it stopped (it seems like the buses were pretty old). Then later the taxi-meter made an attempt to start service and the mafia stopped that. Now taxi-meter is back but for how long?

If the roht daeng drivers go on strike because they put the buses into service, sounds like a positive thing to me.

There is a bus service that originates in my moo bahn (Kwan Wiang) near Hangdong and they travel around the city. Sorry don't know their routes.

[ovenman]

Now taxi-meter is back but for how long?

My understanding is that the new meter-taxis are being run by the same organization that operates the rot daeng.

[Loaded]

Those white buses are parked in the car park of the education offices (adjacent to the US Consulate and behind the firestation).

[ChiangMaiMike]

This is from Chiangmai CityLife Forum posted by Citylife's reporter on Juy 21st, 2005

Songteaw Tantrum Again

The recent efforts to implement municipal buses as a wider plan for Chiang Mai’s public transportation has once again stalled, causing face loss to the Chiang Mai Municipality and upsetting many residents. This latest failure has greatly highlighted the dark influences of the red songteaw cooperative’s (Nakorn Lanna Cooperative) monopoly.

Despite strong support from residents, dire warnings of the necessity by researchers and environmentalists as well as the Lord Mayor’s constant drive to get the municipal buses up and running, the songteaw cooperative has, once again, succeeded in blocking all efforts to create a public transportation system that would greatly benefit the general public.

The bus service has been postponed several times and the only reason given by the municipal executives is the need to avoid conflict with the monopoly cooperative.

After the recent meeting with the cooperatives and the Land Transportation Office’s head and senior staff, it was agreed that the formerly appointed routes granted to the operation of 26 municipal buses a few months ago have to be cancelled. Two routes were finally agreed upon for the air-conditioned municipal buses to run with both routes covering fewer areas of Chiang Mai’s inner city areas. Meanwhile, 100 songtaew, with stickers indicating service, have somehow been recruited to provide service on two other concession routes – which covers more inner city areas while the rest of approximately 2,700 songtaew are still allowed to operate their service as usual.

The municipality has also agreed to subsidise these 100 songtaew at 300,000 baht a month (100 baht per each vehicle per day). The mayor has pledged to pay them the subsidy for a period of 4 months in order to ensure that the mass transit happens. The fee of both municipal bus and the 100 songtaew will be equal.

Starting date of both municipality and the cooperative buses service has been again set to be September 1st but whether this will happen remains to be seen as there may well be several more postponements.

[cdnvic]

Textbook case of what happens when you have a weak and ineffective government.

Now we're subsidizing these ramshakle songtaews?

Can we get some real leaders in this city?

cv

[ovenman]

Starting date of both municipality and the cooperative buses service has been again set to be September 1st but whether this will happen remains to be seen as there may well be several more postponements.

Chances are good that you can take several more postponements to the bank. Rot daeng boycott anybody...?