VietNamNet Bridge – The Ha Noi Department of Transport's programme of decreasing the amount of buses to reduce traffic jams, which has been implemented since last Saturday, has received different responses.

Buses causing traffic jams during peak hours in Ha Noi. The Ha Noi Department of Transport's programme of decreasing the amount of buses to reduce traffic jams has received mixed responses – Photo: VNA/VNS

Under the programme, the number of bus services on Nguyen Trai Road in Thanh Xuan District and Xuan Thuy-Cau Giay Road in Cau Giay District were reduced during rush hours to alleviate traffic congestion.

"Fewer buses may mean that passengers have to wait for more than 20 minutes instead of 5 minutes to 10 minutes, but it is still better than hours in traffic jams," said deputy director of the department Ha Huy Quang.

The Tien phong (Vanguard) newspaper's correspondent reported some disadvantages of the programme.

The Cau Giay-Xuan Thuy Road is a main road which accommodates a number of universities so it has the most number of buses with 12 routes. The road has a total of 69 buses every hour transporting more than 77,000 passengers, most of them students.

But with the programme, since last Saturday, no buses run along the two-kilometre section from Tran Dang Ninh Road to the Mai Dich flyover.

All of bus stops on the road were torn down.

In peak hours, students going to the Ha Noi National University, Ha Noi University of Education, and the Academy of Journalism and Communication must be transported to a bus stop which is about 2km to 3km far from their universities and then walk back.

A similar situation happened on the Nguyen Trai-Tran Phu Road in Thanh Xuan District on Monday. The amount of buses on the road was cut down by 15 per cent so many students must wait about a half an hour for their buses. And many of them arrived at universities late.

On the contrary, the Kinh te do thi (Economics and Urban) newspaper reported some advantages of the programme.

The Tran Phu-Nguyen Trai Road and the Khuat Duy Tien-Nguyen Xien intersection in Thanh Xuan District on Monday was crowded and full with vehicles, but did not have traffic jams.

The Xuan Thuy-Cau Giay Road in Cau Giay District is clearer than previous days, and no vehicles have driven on the pavement, according to the newspaper.

Lieutenant Nguyen Quang Huy, a member of the Traffic Police Team No 6 who is on duty on the road, said that he did not see any traffic jams during peak hours.

Not only Huy but other police working along the road shared satisfactory results.

Nguyen Huy Hoang, a student from the Academy of Journalism and Communication, said that he must get off his bus on a bus stop on Nguyen Phong Sac Street and walk a longer way to go to his university, but he did not waste time on traffic jams and waiting for the bus.

VNS