HÀ NỘI —  Trans-provincial coach operators yesterday refused to take on passengers at Mỹ Đình coach station in protest against the route changes by the Hà Nội Department of Transport.

Nguyễn Như Trúc, director of Mỹ Đình coach station, confirmed the situation to vietnamplus.vn.

The protesting coach operators ply routes from Hà Nội to the northern provinces of Thái Bình and Nam Định and the central provinces such as Hà Tĩnh, Thanh Hóa and Nghệ An.

The department has requested all coaches from Hà Nội to the above-mentioned provinces to move the departure point from Mỹ Đình station to Nước Ngầm station (nearly 15km apart), from January 2 next year.

Nguyễn Thị Hà, 34, a passenger from central Nghệ An Province said “I arrived at Mỹ Đình station at 6am this morning to take a coach to my hometown. It’s 9am now, but I have not been on any coach. The coach operators have closed the doors. At departure time, they drove the coaches out of the station without any passengers.”

A driver on the Mỹ Đình-Nghệ An route told news.zing.vn “Our coach operator has worked at Mỹ Đình station for 10 years. We do not have enough time to manage the change, especially with Tết (Lunar New Year) approaching.”

Nguyễn Như Trúc, Mỹ Đình station’s director, told news.zing.vn “It is estimated that nearly 100 coaches left the station without picking up passengers today. We have reported the case to the city’s Transport Department and are working with authorised agencies to deal with it.”

“We have decided to offer free buses to transport passengers from Mỹ Đình station to Giáp Bát station. This is a temporary solution,” he said.

Nguyễn Tất Thành, director of Giáp Bát coach station, confirmed on receiving the request from Mỹ Đình station.

The number of passengers “being refused” service today and tomorrow has not been determined yet, but it will be a large number.

Trần Đăng Hải, chief inspector of the city’s Transport Department, said inspectors are working with the police and local authorities of Nam Từ Liêm District to persuade and even coerce violating coach operators to follow the city’s regulation.

The authorised force had collected information on violating operators to issue more warnings and impose penalties, he said.

The department also asked enterprises and bus stations to add more coaches and prepare extra ones to meet the public’s travel demands during the New Year (this weekend to Monday) and the Tết holidays (from January 26 to February 1).

To alleviate congestion, bus routes departing from Hà Nội to the provinces of Đắk Lắk, Gia Lai in Tây Nguyên (Central Highlands); Hà Tĩnh, Nghệ An in the central region and Nam Định, Thái Bình, Thanh Hóa and Ninh Bình in the north will move to Nước Ngầm station in the south of the city. Currently, buses leave from six different stations -- Mỹ Đình, Gia Lâm, Yên Nghĩa and Sơn Tây, as well as Trôi and Phùng.

Bus routes linking the city with the northern provinces of Bắc Kạn, Cao Bằng, Hà Giang and Lai Châu, as well as Lào Cai, Phú Thọ, Quảng Ninh and Thái Nguyên, along with Tuyên Quang, Vĩnh Phúc, and Yên Bái will be shifted to Mỹ Đình station.

Routes linking the city with the provinces of Bà Rịa Vũng Tàu in the south, Kon Tum and Đắk Nông in the Central Highland and Điện Biên, Hòa Bình and Thanh Hóa in the north will be transferred from crowded stations of Mỹ Đình, Giáp Bát and Nước Ngầm to Yên Nghĩa station.

Passengers travelling to the northern provinces of Hà Nam, Hải Dương, Hải Phòng and Hưng Yên will depart from Giáp Bát station in the south of the city, while those going to the provinces of Bắc Giang and Lạng Sơn will depart from Gia Lâm station. — VNS