Ho Chi Minh City is preparing to allocate around VND7 trillion (US$280 million) annually to make bus travel free across the city, with authorities aiming to finalize the policy by late April.
280M is a lot of money that can be used to build out better public transport which will work forever. I always take the metro over buses due to a multitude of reasons.
Buses are already cheap to operate hence the cheap fare. They don’t have to be profitable but instead they should charge fares at least from people who can afford paying them. Otherwise this will just paralyse the long term development of other more efficient solutions. I’ve seen it happen in Bangalore where traffic has completely overwhelmed roads and the commute sucks major ass because of underdeveloped metro systems. Delhi is so much better because you can catch a metro from almost anywhere.
280M is a lot of money that can be used to build out better public transport which will work forever. I always take the metro over buses due to a multitude of reasons.
Buses are already cheap to operate hence the cheap fare. They don’t have to be profitable but instead they should charge fares at least from people who can afford paying them. Otherwise this will just paralyse the long term development of other more efficient solutions. I’ve seen it happen in Bangalore where traffic has completely overwhelmed roads and the commute sucks major ass because of underdeveloped metro systems. Delhi is so much better because you can catch a metro from almost anywhere.