A large number of Bangkok commuters are being held hostage. But not at gunpoint. They are victims of a piecemeal public transport policy that sees van operators whose vehicles have hit the 10-year age limit being decommissioned by the Land Transport Department while there are no alternatives.
With commuters as hostages, the operators tried to negotiate for an extension to the age limit while the Department of Land Transport (DLT) is adamant that the vehicles must be replaced with new minibuses.
The two sides are at loggerheads at the expense of ordinary commuters as 248 passenger vans that had been in operation for 10 years or so disappeared from roads on Monday.
Sirinya Wattanasukchai is a columnist, Bangkok Post.
At least 3,000 commuters were leftstranded. They complained about waiting in long queues to get to work on Monday morning while the DLT tried unsuccessfully to ease their plight with temporary replacement buses.
Imagine the chaos when another 1,500 vans, that have also hit the age limit, will be removed from the roads by the end of the year.
The decision has has left several hundred drivers out of work. And commuters have been forced to take the notorious public bus service.
Poor commuters have been left to struggle.
Don't get me wrong. I don't think that van operators have the right to take advantage of commuters as they have done over past years.
But it's sad to see the people fall victim to such a bad system.
I know many people say "vans aren't the villain" -- I agree. But the vans are not angels either.
There are too many reckless drivers, and at times, the vehicles are overused, especially during holiday seasons when demand is high like at Songkran and the New Year. Worse, 10-seat vehicles have been allowed by law to be modified to accommodate 14 passengers.
Such modified versions with narrow aisles and no proper emergency exits aren't designed to stop as often as public buses with at least two doors that allow passengers to conveniently hop on and off. Many windows are helpful in times of emergency.
In some Western countries, such vans are used for transporting goods, not people. In Thailand, such passenger vans have become an alternative to the poor bus service. (Indeed, passenger vans can be a good option for families and friends travelling together to one destination as chartered vehicles).
The van saga is just another testament as to how safety -- or the lack thereof -- remains an issue for our public transport system. We are in a country where commuters are expected to feel grateful for a substandard system. The vehicles weren't originally designed to serve this purpose, with operators adding four extra seats.
More importantly, if authorities force some van operators stop operating, what about city boat services which are equally unsafe?
Remember the man who fell into Klong Saen Saep after tripping while commuting by boat in November 2016? Soon after the accident, the operator promised to modify the passenger boats to be safe, with proper staircases in the middle of the vessels.
Almost two years later, there are very few of the promised newly modified boats. After the issue fades from public attention, almost all are back to square one, except for a few tourist boats that charge tourists 200 baht per day which are empty most of the time.
We still see passengers taking a risk hopping on and off the same old boats without staircases and jumping over the rows of benches to find an empty seat. (Don't do that if you wear a skirt.) It's no wonder a woman, who made news last June, fell off a boat while boarding hurriedly; she was luckily saved by another passenger and not injured.
Back to the van issue, there's only a faint hope that the DLT will come up with a better solution than allowing the operators to take commuters as hostage and providing temporary buses on certain routes. Why can't we have a proper bus service on the routes, especially those on which demand is high?
Why can't we be provided with buses that are maintained properly and meet international safety standards?
When Bangkok was again voted as the best destination by the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index for the third consecutive year last week, I wonder if the prime minister and Bangkok governor realise that the reason that tourists keep coming to Bangkok is mainly because our city provides good value for money. In other words, Bangkok is cheap and adventurous.
But not many foreigners will want to move and live an adventurous life in Bangkok as the life of a commuter is too hard.
Given the current passenger van saga and the poor city boat service, it's clear that commuters will never be provided with efficient public transport by the government and people will be forced to either live with substandard services or no service at all.