The ABCs of bad transport policy plans

Old route numbers on the left, new on the right. It's a good plan if the aim is to confuse commuters. (Illustrations via FB/RotMaeThai)

"I'll eventually learn it by heart," a cleaning lady told me as she stared at the new bus numbers, which also include English letters, on my 5.5-inch mobile screen.

That was her response to my question regarding plans to revamp the city's bus service, initiated by the Department of Land Transport (DLT), which uses the English letters, B, E, G, R, Y.

The scheme is aimed at helping commuters better navigate the service as the agency is set to rearrange the operating zones, reducing them from eight to four. Each letter represents a colour indicating a specific zone. Y is for yellow, B is for blue and E is expressway, for example.

"That's an 'L', I'm sure," she said with confidence. The number she was looking at was "B53E" -- a proposed change for bus no "555".

Sirinya Wattanasukchai is an assistant news editor, the Bangkok Post.

This lady is very optimistic. Perhaps the government's ambitious plan will encourage millions of Thais who don't speak English to learn it through everyday activities.

But the plan has faced heavy criticism along the way.

I appreciate the DLT's efforts to improve the bus service. But I'm afraid the scheme misses the mark.

Instead of improving the service and providing better connections to ease the lives of local commuters, the DLT has decided to complicate it with impractical alphanumerical sets.

I'm not a nationalist. But this is different from the airport A1 bus service, for example, which mostly caters to international tourists.

The DLT should know that most of its customers who use regular bus services are Thai. Half of them may not be familiar with English, and a few more are English deficient. These commuters use the bus service because there's no other affordable option. This leads to my other concerns: The proposed revamp will see the route for each bus shortened from an average of 31km to 28km.

The department said longer routes mean longer periods of time to reach destinations. But shorter routes mean more connecting points for customers. That also means longer waits at each station due to unpredictable bus schedules, while the commuters will definitely have to pay more fares.

More importantly, the department said it wants to take some buses that overlap with rail lines out of service. This will be a heavy blow to low-income people in the suburbs who cannot afford the efficient-yet-costly electric train system.

Back to the colour code system. I don't think it's necessary since the commuters don't need to know the B53E's operation zone. From 01-999, there are more than enough for 269 bus lines. According to rotmaethai.com, the new colour code could be borrowed from South Korea. But the DLT may have no idea that the colour code in South Korea is used to help commuters identify the functions of a bus -- whether it's a feeder or inter-city service. It has nothing to do with operating zones.

If the DLT has no clue about what commuters need most, here it is: Reliable bus service.

Passengers don't want to wait for too long at bus stops, they do want friendly service, on top of bus stop shelters with properly intact roofs. Perhaps most of all, they'd prefer drivers who don't model their driving on the movie Speed.

Commuters deserve to know, when getting around Bangkok, where and how to connect to the next bus, and approximate arrivals and departures at each bus stop, via GPS, so they can make decent travel plans. They are also eager to know when the 489 NGV buses, which have been seized by customs, will be released to serve them. Or when will the e-tickets finally be introduced, the service improved or the fares raised?

The trial service will start on Aug 15. The agency promises that feedback from the trial period will be taken into account, but I haven't heard how the feedback will be collected.

As the DLT has barely communicated with commuters, even about the service launch, I am not sure they know how to prepare for the changes. Not all bus route details have be provided so far.

As is so often the case with state services, the public bus scheme has been designed by those who don't use it. Those who do use it, mostly low-income earners, will never have a say in improving it.

But I'm glad the cleaning lady at my office will soon learn G, B, R, Y, E, as well as what they stand for, if she's enthusiastic enough. Who cares if she misses a few buses or spends more time on each trip?

The DLT may think it has achieved its ultimate goal: Improving people's English skills.