Da Nang debuts new public bus route

The bus route, which took two years of work and total investment of USD2.9 million, will help boost the city’s internal bus services by offering public car parking areas, bus stops and shuttle bus routes connecting residential quarters and public destinations.

The project will also support commuters with free bike parking and smart parking at the departure bus station as well as bus tracking apps on mobile devices.

As planned, commuters will get a one-year complementary ticket as well as free wi-fi service on the bus.

The bus routes, which use eight 50-seat buses, will operate from 05h45 to 20h45 everyday.

Secretary General of TMF and Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor Corporation, Osamu Nagata, said the project aims to help the city prevent traffic congestion in the future as well as contributing to the city’s sustainable development.

Vice Chairman of the city’s People’s Committee Dang Viet Dung said the public bus routes would help change the habits of using personal vehicles for daily travel among local residents.

He said the route, in addition to the current 11 public ones, offers commuters more options to utilise a safe and environmentally-friendly vehicle.

On the occasion, Toyota Vietnam donated two Toyota Coaster buses to the city as part of the project signed in 2015.

Last year, the city launched five new inner-city bus routes with 61 new 40-seat buses. They will run every 20 minutes between 05h00 until 21h00.

The city plans to build Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes and 14 regular bus routes by 2020 under the World Bank-funded sustainable development project.

The city’s population of about 1 million has far outgrown the current public bus system, which has just 48 buses travelling on five routes, meeting just 10 percent of demand.

The city’s Transport Department estimates that residents make 2.1 million journeys each day, 80 percent of them on motorbikes.

Da Nang is Vietnam’s fourth largest city and is highly regarded by other cities for its planning, governance and infrastructure.

In 2013, the World Bank agreed a USD272.1 million sustainable development project, of which USD202.4 million will be channeled into helping improve the city’s BRT network, build new roads and revamp the drainage system./.