Public transport activities planned to resume soon

The Ministry of Transport has drafted a plan to gradually resume public transport activities on roads, railways, aviation, and inland waterways, as many provinces and cities have loosened social distancing rules.

The Ministry of Transport has drafted a plan to gradually resume public transport activities on roads, railways, aviation, and inland waterways, as many provinces and cities have loosened social distancing rules.

  

Public transport will be gradually resumed as social distancing restrictions are lifted

According to the plan, localities and areas that are applying strict social distancing will not allow public transport services. Localities and regions that have relaxed social distancing measures, will be able to resume public transport activities in several phases. The localities can run public transport activities normally without any restriction.

For passengers travelling between areas where social distancing measures are eased, the Ministry of Transport (MoT) offers two options. They can either follow the Ministry of Health's (MoH) 5K principles and regulations on traffic participation or fully vaccinated with two doses (the latest shot must be at least 14 days and no more than 12 months before departure) or recovered from COVID-19 within six months, or test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours from departure.

On inter-provincial passenger buses, the MoT proposes to implement four phases of 10 days each. So the number of trips and the number of passengers on each trip will be gradually increased phase by phase. In phase two, normal operations will be resumed in the fourth phase.

For aviation transport, the MoT offers two options and four phases. Similar to the passenger buses, flight frequency, and the number of passengers will gradually increase, with restrictions removed in the fourth phase.

Railway transport will apply the same four-phase process, while inland waterway transport will have three phases only.

In order to implement the plan, it is necessary to wait for the MoH’s issuance of guidelines on medical control for passengers travelling nationwide and employees of transport service providers. The draft is waiting for public comments.