HÀ NỘI — Illegal coach and bus services have been flourishing in major cities in the run up to Tết (Lunar New Year) despite the Ministry of Transport’s efforts to control them.  

Several buses from the X.E. Company Việt Nam were seen parked at the main entrance of the Thống Nhất Park on Trần Nhân Tông Street in Hà Nội, the Tiền Phong (Vanguard) newspaper reported.

From the outside they looked like 16 seat buses, but inside had only nine seats, arranged like a couch.

These buses are called the “limousine service”, implying that they are top quality.  

In recent months, after bus routes were re-arranged in the capital city, unregistered buses exploded in popularity, adding to the city’s traffic congestion woes.

They often gather at venues or tourist spots where it is easy to pick up passengers and take them to Thái Bình, Ninh Bình and Nam Định provinces on routes meant for registered buses.

They were also seen driving around the city picking up passengers and parking on roads without getting fined.

They also operate longer routes to Thanh Hóa and Nghệ An provinces.

The same situation was observed in HCM City, the newspaper noted.

Small buses from several transport and tourism companies gathered on the city’s tourist streets like Đề Thám, Phạm Ngũ Lão and Lê Lai to pick up passengers and take them to other provinces, mostly Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu.

Hà Quốc Hùng, deputy director of the Hà Nội Railway Station, said that many seven-seat buses came to park inside the station and while the drivers said they came to pick up relatives, they in fact picked up passengers.

He told the station’s staff to not let them park inside the station, he said.  

Nguyễn Tuyển, deputy head of the transport management division of Hà Nội Department of Transport, said that the large number of illegal buses made it difficult to supervise them.

One solution would be to track them using route monitoring devices, he said.

However, regulations issued by the Ministry of Transport do not allow authorities to use these devices, he added. — VNS