Pollution Control Dept. told to clamp down on smoke-belching Bangkok buses

[webfact]

Pollution Control Department told to clamp down on smoke-belching buses



BANGKOK: -- The Supreme Administrative Court has ordered the Pollution Control Department to clamp down on smoke-belching buses of the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority and its concessionaires and to submit follow-up reports to the court every three months for a period of one year.

The case was first brought to the consideration of the Administrative Court by the Emissions Prevention and Environment Protection Foundation and city residents affected by excessive emissions from the city buses.

The court dismissed the charges of negligence of duty lodged against the Pollution Control Department but ordered the BMTA to stop allowing buses which release excessive smoke emissions on run on the city streets.

However, the Supreme Administrative Court faulted the BMTA and held the Pollution Control Department accountable by ordering the department to clamp down on smoke-belching buses and to report to the court every three months.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Global Warming Foundation and 23 other people lodged a lawsuit with the Administrative Court seeking the revocation of the operating licences of operators of Bus Route 8 infamous for reckless driving and road accidents.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/pollution-control-department-told-clamp-smoke-belching-buses/


-- Thai PBS 2014-04-04

[Why ask]

Are they actually going to define exactly what excessive smoke emissions are? Like CO content and hydrocarbons content, or is just if it looks a bit black it's no good?

[seajae]

about as much chance of this working as they would have trying to stop all the hot air coming out of the politicians or excess smoke thqat chokes all the people causing untold health issues from all the burn offs in the north........

Edited April 4, 2014 by seajae

[wirat69]

Are they actually going to define exactly what excessive smoke emissions are? Like CO content and hydrocarbons content, or is just if it looks a bit black it's no good?

You may find that there is already law in place in that regard. 20 years ago they started measuring the exhaust of public buses and trucks. They had numerous test machines to stick in the exhaust and rev the engine.... These were much more reliable than the undercar bomb detector units purchased a few years later!! However, TiT and like many good projects gets shoved aside for an incoming "regime" change of focus, unfortunately.....

[Thai at Heart]

They fail to mention that this case was laid years ago.

One up for the little guy. The PCD are a joke . they are in everyones pocket everywhere. When was the last time they preemptively closed somewhere

Warnings, letters but never a closure before the disaster.

[EvilDrSomkid]

They should just scrap every single red Mitsu bus in Bangkok. They are very poorly maintained and spew clouds of crap. Not to mention break down all the time.

[gerry123]

Are they actually going to define exactly what excessive smoke emissions are? Like CO content and hydrocarbons content, or is just if it looks a bit black it's no good?

got it in one

[jonesthebaker]

if they can't even stop 'joe nobody' from burning plastic and tyers etc. in and around residential areas then how on earth will they dare to approach a big bus company -

answers not required as we all know the answer

[Bung]

How many years / decades has it taken them to speak up about this?

All of those buses should be driven to the scap yard and the government should put new ones on the road.....hahahaha maybe after they build the high speed train to Chiang Mai hahaha

[Johnnie99]

Pollution?

I thought they were having a clampdown on illegal parking.

Whatever happened to that?

[salapau]

Dream on Thailand " officials " this will never happen. Why just Bangkok ? Include the whole country, your people don't care. In the northeast and northwest they are burning the fields, which is against the current laws, no one gives a damn. They try to implement re-cycling, it doesn't work, no one cares, they even burn plastic on the side of the roads. Thailand will soon lose it's appeal to tourists, if it isn't already. Greed, deception, intimidation of foreigners and total selflessness. So pleased that I have left.

[pb1936]

It is obvious that there is no genuine concern or interest in pollution in any of it's forms....just as nothing is done about deliberate torching of mountain ranges. Hollow lip-service that's all.

[lostmebike]

If they're gonna clamp down (there's that word again) on vehicle fumes, are they gonna stop the auto shops selling the straight through exhausts that most trucks and pickups seem to have? You know, the really *uckin* loud ones that not only choke you but deafen people too?

Just wondering

[harber8]

Another ministry that is nothing more than an empty shell.

Apart from the workers that sit with their thumbs up their <deleted> all day getting paid off a deeply engrained corruption system.

[tiffanystoyz]

Simple use bio fuel cheaper cleaner and the air will smell like phad thai

[tiffanystoyz]

As far as used tires better to grind them up and mix in to asphalt for roads new and repair That way cheaper to repair and road lasts longer in return doing that in US and works great reduces landfill too. Plastic recycle to make product to sell like trays chairs for schools you can create a whole industry doing that. metals recycle the japanese will buy all you got.same with glass theres gold in that thrash especially old computers.

[3NUMBAS]

theyve been saying this for more than 20 years but nothing happens to clean up.

they could have bought the London bendy buses for a good price when they were pensioned off but didnt and they were cleaner

[Sparkles]

This crackdown has been announced every year in the 12 years I have been here,nothing happens it just justifies someone's position that he /she is seen to be doing something. The whole country is a joke environmental concerns are just words that they probably don't even understand.

[Fullstop]

Pollution?

I thought they were having a clampdown on illegal parking.

Whatever happened to that?

I think that was a "crack-down" ... not a "clamp-down". Different department. (Ministry of Crack-Downs)

EDIT

This crackdown has been announced every year in the 12 years I have been here

"Clamp-Down". I know ... it's confusing.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Fullstop

[skorchio]

Just send those buses to Phuket, let the tourists breath it .......

[patayayaya]

theyve been saying this for more than 20 years but nothing happens to clean up.

they could have bought the London bendy buses for a good price when they were pensioned off but didnt and they were cleaner

Thailand is supposed to be dirty best keep your buses in pommyland

[wilcopops]

More ill-conceived dictums......

Black smoke from diesels is unpleasant and the particulates from diesels are particularly dangerous, but essentially it is carbon........but FAR MORE DANGEROUS are the pollutants released UNSEEN from poorly tuned gasoline engines, which of they do nothing about.

As ever because they can see it they like to think they are doing something but they are too blind to do anything about the invisible elephant in the room

Edited April 4, 2014 by wilcopops

[yourauntbob]

the buses are bad, but the trucks are 10x worse. sadly i dont see anything changing any time soon.

[fred007]

They should get old Inspector Cyril "Blakey from on the Buses on the job

[wlcart]

i asked a 22 year old university student here if they were taught about global warming in high school, and he told me they did not have global warming when he was in high school.

[jackinthebox]

It's a shame! A city full of brandnew Toyotas, Mazdas and Isuzus, on top, hundreds of thousands of BMWs, Benz, Minis and Lexus, all worth millions and millions of baht. But a public mass transport system that consists (apart from MRT and BTS) of 30 or 40 year old dangerous, uncomfortable, lousy, energy-wasting and air-polluting buses. The look of the vehicles, the rotten bus stops, the confusing line-denotation, the missing maps and the nonexistent time-tables says it all. Thailand has gone a wrong way for many years in focusing on individual transportation, and abandonding public bus transport.

BTW in the 60ties Thais used to cycle a lot and there was a tramway in Bangkok - all gone....

[AVOMan]

Why are they being told to clamp down. I thought this was their job.

[indothai]

no enforcement, lame laws, poor social etiquette, ....... we live in a world of money. Let money decide how our lives will be.

Cause us monkeys are just too stupid to figure this one out.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Among the many reasons this ruling will likely never bring about any major change:

1. there's apparently no time deadline set by the court for the BMTA to rid its fleet of the polluting buses.

2. there's apparently no financial penalty (fines) imposed by the court if the BMTA fails to comply with its ruling.

Without a deadline and fines to back it up, what do you expect the BMTA is going to do? Pretty much nothing.

Wonder what, if any progress, will be shown in the quarterly reports that are supposed to be filed with the court?

[rametindallas]

Are they actually going to define exactly what excessive smoke emissions are? Like CO content and hydrocarbons content, or is just if it looks a bit black it's no good?

Small particle pollution is more health damaging than gaseous air pollution. It is too much if you can see the smoke. If you can see the smoke, the injectors need to be replaced inexpensive part but you do need down time for the bus and pay a mechanic to change them. Why must they be threatened with prosecution to do their jobs. Because the budget they get, barely covers the 'skim' leaving not enough for actual enforcement of the well-defined rules.

Edited April 4, 2014 by rametindallas