Caption: The HCM City Department of Transport is seeking approval for a commuter bus system that would link to stations on Metro Line No. 1, which is under construction. VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY The HCM City Department of Transport wants to develop a commuter bus system to link to stations on Metro Line No1, which is still under construction.

The US$2.05 billion Bến Thành – Suối Tiên line, which runs 19.7 kilometers between districts 1 and  9 in HCM City, is the first of at least six metro lines to be built in the city.

Expected to open in the first quarter of 2021, the metro line stations would be linked to buses operating in the vicinity of the line to help people get to the metro station more easily.

The department has asked the People’s Committee to approve the city’s Public Transport Management and Operation Center as the project’s investor.

Under the department’s proposal, the operations center would invest in infrastructure construction to connect commuter bus lines with the metro line, and reorganise bus lines operating on Hà Nội Highway in District 12. The highway connects the city with neighboring Đồng Nai Province.

The operations center would also invest in 18 more bus lines linked with stations of the metro line.

To make sure they are within walking distance to the metro stations, bus stops would be spaced no more than 500 metres from one another and within a 17.8-kilometer radius from a metro terminal, said Trần Chí Trung, director of the department’s Public Transportation Management Centre.

The 18 additional bus lines would reach into busy residential areas, university campuses, industrial zones and hi-tech parks in districts 2, 9 and Thủ Đức to help attract as many metro passengers as possible, he added.

If the department’s proposal is approved, the project’s design team will survey metro stations and relevant work to map out the most appropriate transport connection solutions.

The team is expected to take about three months to study and design the commuter bus system, which is expected to be finished in 2020 before the first metro line is put into service, said a representative of the department’s Road Transport Management Division. VNS