PUBLIC TRANSPORT
AMORNRAT MAHITTHIROOK
The operators of small buses on minor roads in Bangkok have threatened to go on strike unless the government allows them to raise fares from 6.50 baht per journey to between eight and 10 baht by next Tuesday. Forty operators of song thaew buses _ modified four or six-wheeled trucks with bench seats _ filed complaints with Deputy Transport Minister Songsak Thongsri at the Transport Ministry yesterday.
Spokesman Chatchai Phu-aree said the operators wanted to raise fares from 6.50 to between eight and 10 baht, after recent increases in the price of diesel, which is now 42 baht a litre.
The operators earned about 1,300 baht from serving 200 passengers a day but spent up to 1,200 baht on diesel a day, he said.
The present 6.50-baht fare was based on diesel costing 30 baht a litre. Twenty-two drivers running 2,000 song thaew buses on 33 routes, chiefly on minor roads, would stop serving the public if the fare increase was not approved.
Although the state provides subsidised diesel at three baht cheaper per litre for passenger bus operators, Mr Chatchai said song thaew operators did not get much benefit, because the petrol stations where subsidised diesel was available tended to be on main roads, far from the song thaew routes.
Traffic police have arrested song thaew drivers heading for those stations because their vehicles are prohibited on main roads, he said.
Mr Songsak said his ministry agreed that fares should increase if diesel goes up. That is why it recently approved a fare rise for passenger buses.
However, the Administrative Court had issued an injunction suspending the increase. In the meantime, he said, operators should consider modifying their vehicles to take gas instead of diesel to cut costs.
They should also find other ways to reach stations selling subsidised diesel, Mr Songsak said
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