Recorded at 12 noon, under the hot sun in Ho Chi Minh City, at the boarding house bus station in Area B in Ho Chi Minh City National University village, Hoang Dang Minh Hieu, a first-year student at the University of Economics and Law, stood on the porch waiting for bus number 53.
Although it was not rush hour, Hieu missed 2 trips because there were too many cars and no more places to get on.
"This is not the first time I have missed a car. Some days it takes more than 30 minutes to get on the bus. But when I got up, I was still crowded and cramped, so I took the opportunity to pick up the car early to catch the bus in time for class, but I still missed 2 trips," Hieu shared while continuing to wait for the next trip hoping for some space.
It is known that the situation of overloaded buses in Dai Vu village is no longer a strange thing. Since the beginning of September, bus route No. 33, which used to pass through the dormitory in Area B, has been adjusted, no longer stopping in this area, causing thousands of students living here to have to move to alternative routes such as 53, 99 and internal area No. 8.
Although immediately afterwards, on September 19, the Ho Chi Minh City Public Transport Management Center put bus route 60-5 into operation, connecting from Area B dormitory to schools in the National University, the situation has not improved significantly.
According to Lao Dong, long lines of students lining up and crowding at bus stations still occurred. Many students said that when the bus arrived, it was full, there was no more storage space, if there was space, luckily there were only a few people getting in.
Many students have to wake up at 5:30 am to 6:00 am to get to school on time, or have to spend money to call a technology motorbike taxi if they cannot get on the bus.
Tran Thi Thanh Quynh, a second-year student at Ho Chi Minh City Banking University, shared that one day at 6am, she was waiting at the station but still could not get on the bus.
"I was late for school just because I was waiting for the bus. Although there is an additional flight of 60-5 but the buses are still crowded from the beginning of the route, only a few people can get to the Boarding House in Area B.
My school is less than 5 km away, and many students have to take a bus outside, which costs a little more money. In the long term, there is a lot of financial pressure. I hope to be able to increase trips during peak hours or have a separate route for university students," Thanh Quynh said.
Currently, bus route 60-5 is arranged with 3 vehicles operating continuously during peak hours in the morning, afternoon and evening, with a frequency of 18 - 25 minutes/trip, a total of 76 trips/day.
According to the drivers, the vehicles continuously rotated between the two ends of the station to serve students. In addition, routes 53, 99 and 8 are also increased to pick up and drop off students at the Area B dormitory during rush hour.
A representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Public Transport Management Center said that the unit is continuing to monitor the actual travel needs of students to make timely adjustments. In the coming time, the city plans to complete the plan to organize the internal bus system of Ho Chi Minh City National University, while strengthening the connection with the National University metro station to solve the problem of traffic in the university urban area.
While waiting for long-term solutions, students at the dormitory in Area B still hope to have more trips to increase during peak hours or have their own route to make it easier to go to school every day.
