HCM City — HCM City requires strong commitment at the leadership level to develop a bus rapid transit system, a workshop heard yesterday.

“Public transport has to be the backbone of the transport system in a mega city like HCM City,” Bùi Xuân Cường, director of the city Department of Transport, said.

“However, HCM City faces the fact that public transport only meets 10 per cent of transport demand and there is a significant increase in the number of private vehicles.

“The city plans to boost public transport by developing the existing bus system, metro and bus rapid transit (BRT).

Vivianne Gillman, Swedish Trade Commissioner to Việt Nam promised that her government would support HCM City with funding and technology for developing public transport, especially the BRT.

An expert from Sweden’s Volvo Group told the conference through Skype: “To get more people to use public transport, the most important factor is that the city must create a lane for BRT.

“BRT is not new because it has been used around the world for nearly 40 years. Many cities have had the same problem of limited infrastructure and no dedicated lane for BRT like HCM City.

“This forces HCM City authorities to choose between public transportation and private vehicles because if BRT could meet all requirements like timeliness, no traffic jams and comfort, people would choose public transport to private vehicles.”

To develop an efficient BRT, the city must widely advertise it to change people’s awareness and also develop other means of public transport to connect with it, he said.

He said authorities need to prepare for widespread use of electric buses for public transport, he said.

“HCM City could consider what kind of buses to use in future depending on finance but authorities must prepare the infrastructure for electric buses, which will be the future of transport.”

The city has set a target of having 5,635 buses by 2020 and 15 – 20 per cent of students travelling by them.

It also plans to build eight mass rapid transits, three monorails and six BRT routes. — VNS