Bus stand

Tens of thousands of commuters were left stranded at bus stops throughtout Bangkok while trying to get to work Thursday morning, as private operators took 10,000 buses off the streets to back demands for a fare hike.

Citing expensive prices of fuel, the owners of 63 authorised bus lines which supplement the regular government services went on strike on Thursday morning as threatened.

They drove more than 100 vehicles to the transport ministry for an afternoon protest to insist on higher fares or better subsidies to help pay for higher fuel costs.

Operators said that in lieu of higher fares, they would call on the government to waive concession fees they pay to the government for operating their routes.

The government announced it will try to work with the bus operators to help them out of the energy crisis.

The initial plan is to provide Bangkok city buses with cheap fuel at special fuelling stations, said deputy permanent secretary to the Transport Ministry Piyapan Champasut.

Officials were to hold a press conference to announce an emergency six-month package of help.

Ministers meanwhile said they would hold talks with board members of the Bangkok Metro Transit Agency on a request by private operators to waive concession fees to the government.

Chatchai Chaiwiset, President of the private bus operators' association, said he didn’t expect so many buses to go on strike. If negotiations cannot be reached with the government by today, he threatened to file a petition calling on Transport Minister Santi Promphat to resign. (BangkokPost.com)