Hanoi and HCM City should invest more in public transport if they are to ease traffic, one official said.
Major cities need to take tough measures to deal with public bus problems
Minister of Transport, Dinh La Thang, said that public buses are not a cure-all to deal with traffic congestion. The plan for public transport development for the period of 2012 to 2020, which was recently approved by the Prime Minister, is expected to help mitigate traffic accidents and congestion in big cities.
The Ministry of Transport’s Department of Transport said that currently 54 out of 63 cities and provinces throughout the country operate bus services, with a total of 627 routes and 8,000 vehicles.
Of the total, Hanoi has nearly 1,300 buses and HCM City has around 3,000.
Even though the country has been increasing investment in some new means of public transport, such as metros, elevated trams and rapid bus transit (BRT) routes in Hanoi and HCM City, buses would remain a major means of public transport in the nation between 2012 and 2020, the department noted.
Nguyen Hoang Hai, Director of the Hanoi Urban Transport Management and Operation Centre, said that in order to ensure the sustainable development of public transport, the capital would expand public bus service and change current routes to cover more areas throughout the city in the near future.
Hanoi will increase the number of public bus routes from 84 to 98 by 2020, meeting 20% of commuting demand, he said.
“First, more efforts must be made to deal with inadequacies in bus service in Hanoi, including overcrowding, pollution and substandard passenger service,” he added.
According to the Department of Transport, HCM City has 15 businesses operating in the public transport sector, but their service has proven inefficient despite a large amount of investment.
The city has continued to provide increased subsidies for the service each year. These subsidies soared from VND574 billion in 2008 to VND1.268 trillion (USD60.4 million) in 2011.
The figure is expected to reach VND1.5 trillion (USD71.46 million) this year.
At the meeting, Thang said that Hanoi and HCM City currently spare only between 7% and 8% of their land fund to traffic infrastructure, while the standard rate is between 20% and 26%. "Using a proper portion of the land fund for public transport infrastructure will be key to improving the traffic situation," he added.
