At 8:00 p.m. on April 29, Ms. Thai Phuong Thao (22 years old, in Bac Tu Liem) took a technology car to Nuoc Ngam wharf (Hoang Mai district) to board a bus to Nghe An for the April 30 - May 1 holiday.
Typically, it only takes her 30 minutes to travel each day, but now it is longer than an hour for the distance of less than 15km because the elevated and low routes of Ring Road 3 are heavily congested.
According to the schedule, at 10:00 p.m. on April 29, a sleeper bus will pick up Ms. Thao at Nuoc Ngam Bus Station, but she then received a notice that the routes leading to the bus station were congested, and drivers could not pick up passengers on time.
Around Ms. Thao, customers book trips at 8pm and 9pm and cannot get on the bus, and there are even people waiting for their bus here at 5pm. The waiting area of Nuoc Ngam Bus Station was packed with people. Some passengers were tired after many hours of waiting, so they took the opportunity to cover their faces in the waiting list.
"In some groups, many people said that with this situation, sometimes I get in the car at 2-3am, which makes me more confused" - the female office worker said.
Continuing to call the bus company, Ms. Thao received a response and would try to arrive as soon as possible and hoped that passengers would sympathize with the unexpected incident.
"I'm tired but I need to comfort myself that I'm about to get 5 days off and tell myself that I'll be home after tomorrow morning" - Ms. Thao said.
At 0:00, Ms. Thao was able to get into the car after 3 hours of hard work at Nuoc Ngam Bus Station.
"Every year, I have to plan to come back early or postpone it to the next day, to avoid wasting time and getting tired" - Ms. Thao added.
A week before, Ms. Le Hoa, in Thanh Xuan district, booked a limousine bus ticket to her hometown in Thanh Hoa during the April 30 - May 1 holiday, priced at 250,000 VND.
According to the schedule, at 7pm, the bus will pick her up at Nuoc Ngam Bus Station. But everything was beyond the female office worker's plans.
The driver called the newspaper "every step is wrong, customers wait at least 30-60 minutes more", meaning the departure time will be moved to 8:00 p.m., or even later.
Ms. Hoa said that it took her 5 hours to get home during the last Tet holiday. This year, drivers warned later because all bridges leading out of the city are congested.
Fearing her parents' waiting, Ms. Hoa had to call the whole family to sleep first because she could only go home at dawn, even though the distance traveled was only 150km.
"After more than 3 hours of waiting, it was not until 10pm that the bus arrived at the station" - Ms. Hoa said and said she had never seen the return road this far. She will consider staying in the city for the next holidays.
Mr. Le Van Son - coordinator of a Hanoi - Nghe An bus company said that the local congestion occurred on the afternoon of April 29, all vehicles running fixed routes and shuttle buses were affected, unable to pick up and drop off passengers at the prescribed time.
"I also want to pick up guests on time but I can't help. Faced with complaints and even scolding from customers, the bus company can only ask for sympathy for the unexpected incident" - Mr. Son said.
According to Mr. Son's experience, the congestion and slow pick-up of guests will last from the afternoon of April 29 to April 30 due to the high demand for returning home. For this reason, all pre-booked customers have to wait a few more hours before getting on the bus, not including travel time.
Mr. Tran Trung, a driver specializing in the Hanoi - Nghe An route, said that due to the need to take a full 5 days off, many people intended to leave early, leading to serious traffic jams on many routes.
"To avoid being stuck on the road, passengers should take a trip late or delay to the next day to keep the road clear and avoid fatigue" - Mr. Trung said.
