BMTA and SRT fail service assessment 'but are safe'
BANGKOK'S Mass Transit Authority and the State Railway of Thailand have failed to provide satisfactory public services but are safe, a new report has found.
The Ministry of Finance report on public services for the last financial year focused on performance indicators. It found the BMTA passed just two of four indicators and the SRT passed only two of six indicators.
The reported was handed to Cabinet on Tuesday.
In terms of customer satisfaction, the BMTA recorded a score of 86.6 per cent when 90 per cent is considered the acceptable level.
Passengers complained that the buses in general are too old and simply not good enough.
The BMTA also failed in the cost department, running at an average cost of Bt33.9 a kilometre when Bt32.5 is the desired mark.
On the plus side, the BMTA had a zero per cent accident rate when 0.001 is considered acceptable. The zero per cent rate was attributed to an accident prevention campaign and staff training.
The performance indicator required that each BMTA bus does at least 209 kilometres a day. But BMTA fleet performed better, recording an average distance of 210km a day each.
The SRT’s failed performance indicators included customer satisfaction and its capital disbursement being lower than the aim of 14.9 per cent.
Its financial statement preparation was also deemed a failure because it did not propose a financial statement to the SRT committee in 2010 and 2011, although it sent a financial statement for 2011 to the Office of the Auditor General.
The number of passengers was also lower than the targeted 4.36 million.
However, the number of accidents was lower than targeted in terms of deaths and significant accidents.
The Public Service Grants Committee has proposed to the Transport Ministry that the BMTA can lift its performance by implementing the finding from a passenger survey. It said doing that would cause drivers to cut the speed of buses and strictly adhere to traffic rules.
The Public Service Grants Committee found that the SRT needs to urgently improve its basic structure and service quality, especially cleanness, safety and punctuality of its services.
It said the Ministry of Transport should also study the unit cost of train services.
