Thai Transport Ministry to aid operators of bus lines

BANGKOK, 19 December 2014 (NNT) – The Ministry of Transport is planning to adjust the fares of bus line operators as pricing competition with low-cost airline carriers intensifies.

The Minister of Transport Air Chief Marshal Prajin Janthong today held talks with bus line operators led by the President of the Thai Transportation Operators Association Sujinda Cherdchai to seek measures that will aid operators who have been affected by the cheap ticket prices of low-cost airline carriers.

The Minister said that he has ordered the Department of Civil Aviation to find an appropriate minimum fare for low-cost airlines in order to avoid disturbing other modes of transportation, especially on the Bangkok - Phuket and Bangkok - Chiang Mai routes where airfares have been adjusted to 650 baht per flight, which is the same rate as the bus fare.

The Ministry of Transport is also to introduce measures to tackle illegal passenger service cars by putting the Department of Land Transport and the Transport Co.,Ltd directly in charge of solving the issue.

The Ministry will also hold a conference on 22nd December 2014 regarding a request for cooperation in reducing bus fares in the wake of the falling oil price, while noting that operators had in the past requested a fare hike even before the oil price began to climb.

Bus operators will gather all relevant information and submit it to the Director-General of the Department of Land Transport Teerapong Rodprasert for further consideration.


-- NNT 2014-12-19

Why does the gorvernment insist on interferring with the prices of goods and services here?

If an airline can afford to offer low cost fares maybe the buses should try figuring out how to do likewise

maybe if the bus services actually provided a good service and not use rambo drivers it might do better, adjusting their prices as the airlines have done would help too, at the moment they charge way too much for their crappy, unsafe services

Interesting if one has a little insight of who owns the major private bus companies.

But them brake linings/disc brakes and eyeglasses.

The headline should have read "Private Enterprises in Transportation to Receive Subsidy". The article should have begun "Despite state-owned bus drivers and porters in Bangkok working under unsafe conditions and long hours, requiring many porters to wear adult diapers, the government is quite eager to subsidize the privately-owned transportation sector. The owners and shareholders are happy to join the ranks of privately-owned and subsidized educational institutions, food chains, commercial fishing operations, and rubber plantation owners. While subsidizing small businesses, subsistence farmers, and private taxi operators is considered a low-yield and risky investment, all concerned feel the current trend that conforms to previous trends for the last twenty years is the safest legalized gamble available."

So, let me understand this absurdity: Airlines have found that they can compete with the bus companies and so someone in the government decides that this is not acceptable. Why? Who owns the big bus companies? Knowing this might help to understand why the government would want to interfere with a one hour SAFE travel from BKK to CM in return for a 12 hour trip that has had safety problems for years. So much for supporting the Thai people.

Could the cost of a bus trip be any less here?

It's not like anyone is paying for safe travel on the bus, after all.

So, let me understand this absurdity: Airlines have found that they can compete with the bus companies and so someone in the government decides that this is not acceptable. Why? Who owns the big bus companies? Knowing this might help to understand why the government would want to interfere with a one hour SAFE travel from BKK to CM in return for a 12 hour trip that has had safety problems for years. So much for supporting the Thai people.

The owners of the 'big' bus companies are likely to be those promoting 'government assistance', of course; they think they are rich and yet owning a bus company 'proves' that only to themselves.

In competition with truly expensive operations, they pale into insignificance.