The number of low-floor buses designed for people with disabilities will be limited due to steep bridge approaches and flood-prone streets in Bangkok, Deputy Transport Minister Ormsin Chivapruck said on Thursday.
Mr Ormsin insisted on the majority of new buses having higher-raised floors despite complaints by activists over his decision to drop a policy of the state-run Bangkok Mass Transit Authority. The BMA had said it would buy only low-floor buses. Activists said the policy would limit public transport access for people with disabilities.
Mr Ormsin said low-floor buses would be easily damaged because the chassis would rub against steep bridge approaches throughout greater Bangkok. Low-floor bus services would also have to be suspended when streets were flooded, he said.
Therefore, high-floor buses should be acquired and an "appropriate" number of low-floor buses would be ordered, he said.
"I care about people with disabilities, but low-floor vehicles must be properly acquired. The procurement will not be for only low-floor buses. That would otherwise cause problems to services at the bridge approaches that are too steep for low-floor vehicles, or during flooding," Mr Ormsin said.
He agreed that low-floor buses would form the first lot of 489 new buses that the BMTA would buy out of 3,183 new buses but, he said, high-floor buses would be the majority of the rest.