Weekly, monthly bus ticket prices to rise after passengers switch due to fare increase
The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority plans to further raise the prices of its weekly and monthly tickets to match the price of daily tickets after the fare hikes prompted 20 per cent more commuters to buy advance tickets, a BMTA deputy director said.
Meanwhile, the number of BMTA bus passengers remained unchanged after the fare recent fare increase.
Prayoon Chuaykaew, BMTA deputy director, said the number of BMTA bus passengers remained about 1.3 million per day after the BMTA increased its bus fare rates on April 22.
But, Prayoon said, more passengers switched to advance weekly and monthly tickets. He said the number of passengers who bought advance tickets, increased by 20 per cent because they could save at least 30 per cent on their travel cost.
Prayoon said the BMTA needs to increase the advance ticket prices to keep the margin of fare rates of daily ticket and advance tickets at 30 per cent. Before the increase in advance weekly and monthly ticket prices, the margin was 60 per cent, Prayoon said.
He said the BMTA has about 3,000 buses in operation – 1,520 non-air-conditioned buses and 1,400 air-conditioned buses. About 70 per cent of passengers – around 900,000 – used air-conditioned buses, Prayoon added.
Primprao Wongsutthirat, assistant director of BMTA, said the BMTA increased the price of weekly tickets for buses without air-conditioning from Bt100 to Bt120 from April 2 to April 21, 2020, after which the price will increase to Bt150.
The price of weekly ticket for air-conditioned buses was increased from Bt200 to Bt255 for the first year, and will be raised to Bt270 in April 2020.
The monthly ticket price for buses without air-conditioning was raised from Bt400 to Bt480 and will be increased to Bt600 in April 2020, while the price for monthly ticket for air-conditioned buses was increased from Bt800 to Bt1,020 and will rise again to Bt1,080 in April 2020, she said.
Passengers using weekly and monthly tickets can ride the buses on multiple trips each day.
Prayoon said the prices of monthly tickets for students will not be increased from Bt135 for non-air conditioned buses and Bt270 for air-conditioned buses for students of Grade 9 and lower, or Bt270 and Bt540 respectively for students above Grade 10.