The country's largest bus station is still empty after 4 years of operation

Modern but inconvenient

With a total area of ​​over 16 hectares, the new Mien Dong bus station is located in Thu Duc City, about 20km from the center of Ho Chi Minh City. The bus station was built to serve up to 7 million passengers per year. However, since the first phase of operation in October 2020, the bus station has only reached 5% of its capacity. Every day, the bus station has more than 200 departures, transporting about 3,000 passengers - a very modest number compared to its scale.

One of the main reasons why passengers hesitate to use the new Mien Dong bus station is because of the long distance and inconvenient traffic connections.

Mr. Nguyen Phan An - a passenger preparing to go to Da Nang - shared: "This bus station is very clean and modern, but the location is too far from the center. Each time I go here, it takes nearly an hour and costs several hundred thousand in taxi fare if I go with someone else, and if I go alone, a motorbike taxi is also expensive."

Many bus companies are having difficulty renting parking lots at the new Mien Dong bus station while the number of passengers is too low.

A representative of Trung Nga bus company running the HCMC - Phan Thiet route said: "To get passengers, we have to organize shuttle buses from the center to the station, which is very expensive. Many transport companies cannot afford the cost and must move outside or abandon the route."

In contrast to the deserted station, outside the national highways and gas station areas, "illegal taxicabs" are bustling with passengers. Many people choose to take a car outside the station because of its convenience and because they do not have to spend extra time and money traveling far.

Ms. Pham Mai Oanh, a worker at Linh Trung 2 Export Processing Zone, said: "The road to the new Mien Dong bus station is too far and inconvenient, so I choose to catch a bus outside the station for speed."

In fact, many passenger vans still regularly pick up passengers at gas stations and parking lots on national highways such as National Highway 1 and Hanoi Highway. In addition to contract vans with clear schedules, many vans that take the wrong route to pick up individual passengers also sneak into these areas, making the situation of illegal taxicabs difficult to control.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport, the city currently has 84 pick-up and drop-off points that do not comply with regulations.

Are the solutions to "save the bus station" feasible?

To attract passengers to the new Eastern Bus Station, Saigon Transport Mechanical Corporation (Samco) will soon launch a shuttle bus service from the inner city to the station, passing through central districts such as District 1, 3, 5, 10 and Thu Duc City. Shuttle buses will have 29 seats or less, operating every day of the week, including holidays and Tet. Transportation costs will be included in the passenger's ticket price.

It is expected that transport units will pay 30,000 VND/passenger to use this transfer service. However, many transport units are still hesitant about this additional cost.

Mr. Tran Thanh Viet - Head of the Transportation Planning Department of the new Eastern Bus Station - said: "Transport units are concerned that increasing costs will increase ticket prices, causing disadvantages for competition."

In fact, Phuong Trang bus company has used the shuttle service and received positive feedback from passengers, but the demand is not yet large enough to create a widespread effect.

In addition to the transit plan, Ho Chi Minh City is looking forward to Metro Line 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien), expected to be operational by the end of this year, to connect the bus station with the public transport network. When Metro Line 1 is operational, passengers can easily travel from the center of Ho Chi Minh City to the new Mien Dong bus station, reducing traffic pressure and travel costs. Ho Chi Minh City will also increase bus connections with Metro Line 1, creating a synchronous transport network serving the entire region.

However, the representative of the Eastern Bus Station recently stated that, in order to truly attract customers, it is necessary to completely ban sleeper buses from entering the inner city in order to reduce the number of illegal taxicabs

Tightening traffic routes also plays an important role. The North and Central regions need to have routes through the new Mien Dong bus station, while vehicles heading to the West should concentrate on Mien Tay bus station.