Passenger boat fares drop Wed

Passenger boat fares drop Wed

The fares of passenger boats in the Saen Saep Canal will decrease by one baht Wednesday due to the cheaper diesel prices, Chula Sukmanop, director-general of the Marine Department, said on Tuesday.

Commuters will pay one baht less on passenger boats in the Saen Saep Canal, Bangkok, from Wednesday. (Photo by Pattarachai Prechapanich)

He said that Krobkrua Kon Song Co, which operates the boats in Saen Saep, responded to his call for passenger boats in the canal and the Chao Phraya River to lower their fares as the local diesel prices dropped by one baht per litre on Monday.

Mr Chula expected the operators of passenger boats and ferries in the Chao Phraya River to follow suit within this week.

Chavalit Methayaprapas, managing director of Krobkrua Kon Song, said the fare reduction would take effect when the first daily boat trip started at 5.30am tomorrow.

If diesel prices returned to 29 baht per litre, the fares would rise by one baht again, he said. Before the reduction, the fares ranged from 10-20 baht.

Charoenporn Charoentham, acting managing director of Chao Phraya Express Boat Co, did not confirm whether its fares would fall. He said that Krobkrua Kon Song Co was clearly contracted to base its fares on the diesel price but the fares of Chao Phraya Express Boat were based on more than 10 costs including the diesel price.

He said his company had not cut its fares when the diesel price had been 26 baht a litre in the past because the decline was not big enough to have a significant effect on costs.

The high-speed diesel price stood at 26.89 baht a litre on Tuesday.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (1)