The ministry said the proposal to run city buses on gas was impractical as there were few NGV stations in Bangkok and the pipeline infrastructure was not in place to support the opening of new ones. A ministry spokesperson said on Friday that the BMTA needed to repair its diesel-powered buses for use until electric buses became more affordable.
The 2,860 buses that were destined for the scrapheap are at least 14 years old and in some cases are a quarter of a century old. The original proposal would have seen the BMTA gradually sell them all over the next decade. The spokesperson noted that the first phase of the NGV bus project will still go ahead and the BMTA will add 489 of these to its fleet and get rid of 628 older buses.
Pranee Sukrasorn is the temporary director of the BMTA and she says the repair and renovation contract for the old buses will be put out to tender. She said the project would likely commence in October and would see an average of seven revamped buses hit the streets of Bangkok a month.
Bangkok to renovate veteran buses for return to service
News in Asia
Bangkok’s urban transport operator has been forced into scrapping a proposal to sell its aging buses. Thailand’s transport ministry vetoed a proposal from the BMTA (Bangkok Mass Transit Authority) board of directors to replace 2,860 buses with new ones that ran on natural gas (NGV).