Hanoi bus ridership recovers following service improvements

Transerco’s director general Nguyen Hoang Trung reported that on January 13 that total ridership last year rose 3% from a year earlier.

He said that as part of the company’s bus development for the 2016-2020 period, Transerco opened 17 new regular bus routes and one BRT route in 2017, helping to expand subsidised bus services to Hanoi’s outlying suburbs.

The company also purchased 258 new buses, accounting for nearly one third of its fleet to serve new routes and replace dilapidated vehicles.

Transerco is replacing dilapidated buses with new vehicles.

In addition, free Wi-Fi services were offered on many buses while a mobile app, available in both Vietnamese and English, was redesigned to make it easier for passengers to navigate the capital city’s public bus system.

With only a few touches, passengers can now set their departure and arrival locations and the app will display the most convenient bus routes.

More than 4,000 bus drivers and conductors were also trained to be more hospitable and helpful to passengers.

In the next few years, Hanoi will strive to further improve its bus service in order to increase the usage of public transport, which is expected to help reduce traffic congestion and air pollution.

Last year, the city government approved a plan to ban motorbikes in central districts by 2030 and raise the capacity of the public transport system to 30-35% of travel demand by 2020 and 50-55% by 2030.