Electric baht buses come to Pattaya

[Gaybutton]

Pattaya launches electric baht-buses to tackle long-term pollution

By Pattaya Mail

April 26, 2024

In a bid to revolutionize public transportation and combat pollution, Pattaya City took a significant step forward on April 25 with the official handover of electric pickup trucks, Hilux Revo-e, for trial service as Baht-Buses, locally known as the Song Taew.

This milestone stems from a collaborative effort between Toyota Motor Thailand Co., Ltd., and the city of Pattaya, encapsulated in a memorandum of understanding for the “Sustainable Urban Development Project Free from Pollution.” The initiative aims to enhance transportation and public transit systems in Pattaya by embracing clean energy vehicles.

As part of the project’s strategy to curb carbon emissions, the electric pickup trucks will undergo trial service as fixed-route public transportation vehicles from April 2024 to December 2025. Operating along the “Route 4,” these twelve electric vehicles will shuttle passengers from the Bali Hai Pier Parking Lot in South Pattaya to the Bang Lamung District Office.

The fare structure for this innovative service will be determined by the Pattaya Cooperative, marking a pioneering move in Thailand’s transportation landscape. The trial period seeks to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of integrating electric cars into the public transportation network, setting the stage for a more modern and sustainable transit system in Pattaya.

Surapoom Udomwong, Deputy Managing Director of Toyota Motor Thailand Co., Ltd., and Rewat Siangchin, Chairman of the Pattaya Cooperative handed over the electric baht buses to Mayor Poramet Ngampichet at Pattaya City Hall. Following the formalities, a procession of twelve electric vehicles set off from the Bali Hai Pier Parking Lot in South Pattaya, marking a symbolic shift towards sustainable urban development.

Story and photos: https://www.pattayamail.com/news/pattay ... ion-459186

[Jun]

Is anyone capable of thinking at City Hall ?
When they switch from diesel to electric, shouldn't that be the time to switch from Songtaew to proper buses ?

Any fool can see that Songthaew are a major cause of congestion, simply because of the way they crawl up the road looking for passengers, then stop anywhere they like to pick them up.
If they manage to stop in the middle lane, that's even better for the Songtaew driver, as it's less likely that another Songtaew will pass him. As we often see around Central Shopping centre. Therefore compounding the congestion problem.

If you have buses and bus lanes WITH CAMERAS for enforcement, then it ought to be faster and cause less congestion. The faster the public transport, the more likely people are to use it.

However, if Pattaya leases a load of electric Songtaew, I guess they will be stuck with them for 20 years.

[Gaybutton]

However, if Pattaya leases a load of electric Songtaew, I guess they will be stuck with them for 20 years.

They did try "proper" buses several years ago and for whatever reasons they failed miserably. I don't know what trying buses again would accomplish other than another expensive failure.

In my opinion, maybe baht buses at all are not exactly ideal, but electric baht buses are better than fuel powered baht buses.

[Jun]

I agree that electric baht buses are better than diesel baht buses.

However, if a bus service were configured intelligently & backed up by some law enforcement to ensure it's done properly, it would succeed.
Unfortunately, I've just listed 2 prerequisites that are beyond the authorities in Pattaya.

Buses work fine in many cities in the world, including, to some extent, Bangkok.
Although even Bangkok would work far better with some bus lanes and law enforcement to stop scummy taxi drivers stopping at bus stops.

[Gaybutton]

done properly, it would succeed.

I see nothing to indicate the powers-that-be are even considering trying city buses again in Pattaya, so it's kind of a moot issue.

It was an utter failure the first time. If at some point they do decide to try it again, why do you think it would be any different from the first time?

[Jun]

It was an utter failure the first time. If at some point they do decide to try it again, why do you think it would be any different from the first time?

If buses were implemented by the current regime in Pattaya, I think they would be a failure again.
However, buses would be a great answer if implemented by a competent regime.

Buses would be a great success if we had:
1 Buses on the main routes with an interval of no more than 5 minutes
2 Baht buses banned from these routes & sent to work on providing a feeder service in parts of the city that don't have public transport
3 Bus lanes were introduced to ensure a fast service
4 Cameras were introduced to ensure ALL other traffic doesn't use the bus lanes
5 The police reliably enforced these rules, to keep the baht buses off the bus routes and all traffic out of the bus lanes

Pattaya would fail on 1, 2, 3,4 and 5. Making policies work is difficult if there's no intelligent decision making and ineffective law enforcement.

They could further enhance this service by having:
6 A tax on parking spaces & use the money to subsidize the bus fares down to under 10 baht
7 Some form of contactless payment. Either by bank cards or a clone of Rabbit, Oyster, Pasmo etc.

Bear in mind, these clowns are talking of building a monorail. Which they will also screw up, probably even more screwed up than the monorails in Bangkok.

[Gaybutton]

buses would be a great answer if implemented by a competent regime.

"Ah. There's the rub."
- Shakespeare

I'm not going to criticize electric baht buses even though I know they could have come up with something better, but didn't. And electric baht buses won't add to the pollution. Better than nothing. While the powers-that-be could have done some of the things Jun suggests, at least they did something. I won't be holding my breath for anything else in the foreseeable future.