CONFIRMED: Minivans to relocate from Victory Monument on October 25

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Transport goes ahead with the October 25 D-Day for all passenger vans to provincial destinations to operate from 3 bus terminals

 

 

The Department of Transport says its October 25 D-Day for passenger vans to operate services to destinations in the provinces from Bangkok's three bus terminals will go smooth.

 

Assurance of the smooth D-Day came after its meeting yesterday with a committee in charge of regulating the over 4,000 passenger vans operating services from the Victory Monument to provincial destinations at a 300 kilometres  perimeter from Bangkok.

 

The meeting discussed progress in the regulation which showed satisfactory cooperation from commercial van operators.

 

The deputy permanent-secretary of the Ministry of Transport Mr Darun Saengchai revealed that the meeting was called to check on progress being made on the second stage of moving these vans which were providing service from Bangkok

to provincial destinations located within a 300 km radius to the city.

 

In all, there are 4,205 vans providing such service which employ the Victory Monument as its base.

 

In the past this has caused major traffic problems with congestion in the area and there have been many official attempts to move them to other locations.

 

But he said under the new plan which has proved successful, vans will only be able to operate from 3 bases which the Transport Company Limited has made available.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/transport-goes-ahead-october-25-d-day-passenger-vans-provincial-destinations-operate-3-bus-terminals/

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2016-10-08

[Wilsonandson]

What a great idea, replacing the smaller, sleeker and faster mini van with the larger, older, slower public bus. That will solve traffic jams and it's smokey exhaust fumes will help the city's smog problem. Black sooty monument will be it's future name.

[stevenl]

What a great idea, replacing the smaller, sleeker and faster mini van with the larger, older, slower public bus. That will solve traffic jams and it's smokey exhaust fumes will help the city's smog problem. Black sooty monument will be it's future name.

The vans will be relocated.

[tx22cb]

" vans will only be able to operate from 3 bases which the Transport Company Limited has made available. "

And passengers arriving at those 3 bases will be victims of cheating taxi drivers.  And 2 of those bases are not linked to the electric trains.

[anotheruser]

2 hours ago, tx22cb said:

" vans will only be able to operate from 3 bases which the Transport Company Limited has made available. "

And passengers arriving at those 3 bases will be victims of cheating taxi drivers.  And 2 of those bases are not linked to the electric trains.

 

First world problems...

[zd1]

When I read the headline I was hoping that they would be getting relocated to Antarctica.

 

Probably the most dangerous form of transport on the planet.

[seahorse]

5 hours ago, zd1 said:

When I read the headline I was hoping that they would be getting relocated to Antarctica.

 

Probably the most dangerous form of transport on the planet.

Motorbikes are the most dangerous.

[Maverell]

I trust some authority will publish what destinations the vans will serve from each bus terminal ?

[sahibji]

4205 vans operating from victory monument. that is is some parallel industry. does the entire bus net work need to be looked into as there is such a deficiency in the net work which has to be filled by the mini vans, valuable as they no doubt are. with the relocation,  an integration into the overall transport system could be looked into and perhaps more bus routes added or and the existing one tweaked in case there is replication.

[sahibji]

1 hour ago, Maverell said:

I trust some authority will publish what destinations the vans will serve from each bus terminal ?

Maverall what an idea although i suspect it may never happen. that information would be very useful indeed.

alternatively we may only learn from word of mouth or personal experience.

[sahibji]

7 hours ago, zd1 said:

When I read the headline I was hoping that they would be getting relocated to Antarctica.

 

Probably the most dangerous form of transport on the planet.

both are equal contenders for the title. another element is the luck.

[sahibji]

9 hours ago, anotheruser said:

 

First world problems...

longer term integrated system is necessary to solve some of the problems. this action to relocate may serve as a temporary measure but as observed by another writer, it will create  collateral issues like taxi shortages.

[keemapoot]

12 hours ago, tx22cb said:

" vans will only be able to operate from 3 bases which the Transport Company Limited has made available. "

And passengers arriving at those 3 bases will be victims of cheating taxi drivers.  And 2 of those bases are not linked to the electric trains.

 

The reason people flock to the mini vans for transport out of province are because they are accessible from the BTS, and much faster and more convenient than traveling to the big bus stations. It makes no sense for the mini vans to be stationed at the same bus stations with the large VIP buses. The reason for their existence diminishes, and I expect many VIP mini van companies to go bankrupt with this move.

 

 

[bamukloy]

Maybe some reading comprehension is in order??..

 

The vans to be relocated are provincial routes.

 

Nothing to do with the city routes around Bkk.

 

There are ample bus stations on each compass point of the city toward the province of choice.

It just means the provincial van operators will have to depart from the established centres, instead of clogging up the arterial roads to VM.

Very good idea and probably a good thing for the average city commuter

[sfokevin]

I might suggest they repurpose the Makkasan spirthouse as a van terminal

Edited October 9, 2016 by sfokevin

[bamukloy]

20 minutes ago, keemapoot said:

 

The reason people flock to the mini vans for transport out of province are because they are accessible from the BTS, and much faster and more convenient than traveling to the big bus stations. It makes no sense for the mini vans to be stationed at the same bus stations with the large VIP buses. The reason for their existence diminishes, and I expect many VIP mini van companies to go bankrupt with this move.

 

 

 

It will be good riddance if they do.  A true VIP van, i would class as 8 seater, was once common but you dont see them much these days. 

Typical greed. Now they cram you in like sardines.

If they loose business they will have to rethink their business model.

If you've seen the new class of bus out of mochit, you'd never choose a van just to save 30 mins on a trip.
And then consider the  risk factor, the van guys driving like maniacs. 

 

 

[keemapoot]

Just now, bamukloy said:

 

It will be good riddance if they do.  A true VIP van, i would class as 8 seater, was once common but you dont see them much these days. 

Typical greed. Now they cram you in like sardines.

If they loose business they will have to rethink their business model.

If you've seen the new class of bus out of mochit, you'd never choose a van just to save 30 mins on a trip.
And then consider the  risk factor, the van guys driving like maniacs. 

 

 

 

Sure, all of those things you say are true. We all know many of the privately owned ones are dangerous boxes with poorly trained and disciplined drivers. This is not about the van operators, it is about the hard-working, time-pressed commuters rushing to and from the provinces making a living.

 

They will have to pay more money to get to places like Mo-Chit, it will take them more commuting time, and they will have less time to spend with their family than they do now. Is that a good result for average working people and students who have no choice but to work in Bangkok?

[CGW]

3 hours ago, seahorse said:

Motorbikes are the most dangerous.

Statistically they are not! taking into account the number of journeys made, they are safer than flying

[seahorse]

4 hours ago, CGW said:

Statistically they are not! taking into account the number of journeys made, they are safer than flying

The Least (and Most) Dangerous Forms of Travel

 

Quote

you could spend less than a third of your life on a motorcycle before you would have a statistically even chance of being killed.

 

[Moonmoon]

Hope the tranport ministry can look into building more bus terminals n even taxi stands where they can park inside a waiting bay area n if it is full the other cabs will just have to move on during peak hours so as not to create a jam. More bus lanes n ban the buses from travelling out of the bus lanes as well.

[bino]

The article in the OP says that Ekkamai will be one of the three terminals.

 

What a stupid half baked idea that is. Ekkamai is already congested enough, and there is no close access to expressway.

 

Victory monument has good ingress and egress from the expressway in addition to connection to the skytrain and just about every city bus route.

[CGW]

2 hours ago, seahorse said:

The Least (and Most) Dangerous Forms of Travel

 

 

So, we are going to let facts spoil what are far more interesting & alarming statistics!

Seriously, the so called "facts" quoted in the "blogg" are nonsense, typical American article whereby they think they are the only country in the world!

Think of all the motorcycles in Asia including India, there are shedloads, think how many journeys each motorcycle makes in a day, as an example 4m motorcycle taxi's in Thailand x 15? trips per day = ~ 60 million!

My "fact" stated the number of "journeys made, not mileage etc!

It has to be true as I read it somewhere, can't remember where though! 

[Asiantravel]

19 hours ago, zd1 said:

When I read the headline I was hoping that they would be getting relocated to Antarctica.

 

Probably the most dangerous form of transport on the planet.

 

yes indeed! But it doesn't affect me anyway because you wouldn't catch me in one of those deathtraps with kamikaze drivers

[bamukloy]

 

Well the chances are those people dont live in the vicinty of VM anyway, so they have to travel to get there at any rate.

 

Alternatively, BTS from say, VM to Mochit would be extra 15baht and maybe 15 minutes.

 

Nice that you think about peoples family time and all, but in reality if these people used a bit of thought and planning, most  would find one of the terminals quicker and easier to get to.

 

Most probably the only reason people get the vans from VM is because there are many free buses that go there.

 

But really, if you have been stuck in traffic jams approaching VM, 45 minutes to go 1km you can understand this.

The authorities on Thai TV also stated that the vans are clogging up movement in the small sois where they are illegally parked when waiting to embark.