Costs of the BRT

The decision to scrap or not scrap the BRT should be based on facts, knowledge and expertise.

Of course when the survey conducted by Kasem Bundit University asked those few passengers who use the BRT whether they want to keep the service — the answer should be obvious, even to the uninitiated. It would be useful to see the objective of the survey, and especially the sample size of each groups: passengers, motorists etc whether they are truly representative of the people involved. There are about 25,000 passengers per day on the BRT while there are hundreds of thousands of motorists per day. So how was the survey designed and conducted?

Financially the BRT could become the BMA’s personal SRT with an annual loss of 200 million baht per year. The shortfall is not only 25,000 passengers from a target of 35,000. It is multi-fold of the present fare. Arithmetically, to just break even the fare has to be increased by 22 baht per passenger (200 million / 25,000 / 365 = 21.92 shortfall per passenger per trip). So should the whole of Bangkok pay for the 25,000 BRT passengers? Or should the whole of Thailand via the government pay for the recurring losses?

Experts in the field of transport have expressed reservations about the scheme’s viability. Assoc Prof Jittichai Rudjanakanoknad, deputy director of the Transportation Institute, Chulalongkorn University,