People excitedly experience free bus trips
From July 1, 2026, people have experienced the policy of free subsidized bus tickets for routes within Hanoi Ring Road 1.
Ms. Dinh Thi Van (O Cho Dua ward, Hanoi) experienced the journey to work without spending money for the first time. Ms. Van said "This is very practical support for people who regularly travel by public transport, especially in the Ring Road 1 area. I think this policy not only helps save travel costs but also creates more motivation for many people to choose buses.
Also choosing buses as the main means of transportation for many years, Mr. Nguyen Huu Thao (Ha Dong ward) said that free tickets will create a good opportunity for people to directly use and feel the convenience and safety of public transport.
The joy comes not only from passengers but also spreads to those who directly operate the vehicle. Mr. Vu Dang Hoan, driver of bus route 90 of Hanoi Transport Corporation, expressed his joy when service quality is increasingly improved. The city's introduction of clean electric buses, operating smoothly, has brought great sympathy to the people. He himself hopes that the support from the city will attract more passengers to accompany him every day.
To ensure connectivity efficiency, the city has arranged 45 bus routes and branches to operate integrated with 44 public bicycle stations with hundreds of vehicles in the core wards of the low-emission pilot area around Ring Road 1, helping people easily switch to transportation between buses, urban railways and destinations in the center.
Modern and economical with electronic ticket cards and new payment methods
In parallel with free tickets, the Hanoi bus system also officially put the electronic traffic ticket card system into widespread operation along with the new ticket price calculation method. On the first day of deployment, although there was still some confusion with the new technology, with the guidance of staff, most passengers were able to scan the QR code when getting on and off the bus so that the system could automatically recognize the journey.
This modern payment method comes with a completely new ticket price calculation mechanism based on the principle of paying as much as you travel, instead of paying the same price for the entire route as before. According to this calculation method, the ticket price per trip for short routes is reduced.
The formula is determined as follows: Ticket price per trip = Opening price + Distance traveled x Price of 1 km.
The opening price is 3,000 VND, the price per km is 450 VND.
Regularly traveling a short distance of about 2 km near home to go to work, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huyen Trang (Dong Anh commune) was extremely surprised by this change. Previously, even though she only traveled a few short stops, she still had to pay the entire ticket price for the entire long journey of 15,000 VND. However, with the smart calculation based on the actual distance today, the electronic card system only deducts about 4,000 VND for her travel distance. "Traveling less and paying less not only brings rationality but also helps people traveling short distances like me save a significant amount of money each month" - Ms. Trang assessed.
The synchronous combination of free tickets and electronic cards policy to reasonable fare adjustments according to routes is expected to quickly create a breakthrough for Hanoi's traffic. These technological solutions help reduce pressure from personal vehicles, reduce travel costs for people in the short term and gradually build a smart and sustainable urban passenger transport system.
