Bangkok's "worst" bus line: not THAT bad

After the No.8 bus was voted the worst in Bangkok in the transport minister's Facebook survey, our writer takes a ride and finds the complaints are not entirely fair

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One of Bangkok's notorious number 8 buses makes a sharp turn to pick up passengers. Photos by Apichart Jinakul.

Fast and Furious 8

Life in the slow lane

Kaona Pongpipat

I got on a No. 8 bus the other day expecting to experience what people have been talking about this past week – a nightmare. Taking a seat at the back, I braced myself for some action – the sudden lurching off and slamming of brakes, cursing from the driver, yelling from the conductor, pulling up at the wrong spots, dropping passengers off in the middle of the road, and the speeding up and overtaking of other buses.

In short, I was looking for Fast and Furious set in Bangkok with the notorious No. 8 – voted the worst bus route in Bangkok for years, including a survey revealed last week – leading the urban race as it plies the route between Memorial Bridge and Happy Land in Bang Kapi district.

But five minutes later, the bus was pretty much where it was before. And even when the road was clear, this privately-run bus line was going ever so smooth and slow.

There's only one obvious explanation: the news of how it ranked as the bus line in most need of improvement in Transport Minister Chadchart Sittipunt's Facebook page survey has now rubbed off on the operators, and the drivers have learned to take more care.

It's unlikely, however, that this sudden change of behaviour will put an end to the bad reputation it has notched up over the years.

A number 8 bus conductor says Bangkok traffic and undisciplined passengers are at fault too.

While the conductor was so nice to me even though I only had a 100-baht note for the 8 baht fare, another passenger I talked to had a different story to tell.

"The conductor was yelling at an old lady who got on the wrong bus," recounted Pratchaya Chaichana about some of his terrible experiences with this route. "The bus would cut in front of all the cars from the far right lane to the bus stop on the left. The driver was smoking, too. I was sitting right behind him. It was hell."

As the road got a little clearer around Lat Phrao, the bus sped up a little. Quite a few times it went off swiftly to the right to overtake cars, and there were a couple of occasions when it didn't drop the passengers off properly at a bus stop. Still, it was a far cry from what a lot of people have been saying and there's a possibility that you'd need to ride in the early morning or late at night for the bus to live up to its notoriety.

I got off in front of Big C Lat Phrao to wait and try the next bus. There are more than 70 non-air-conditioned No. 8 buses in all and it took no time for the next to arrive. The result, however, was quite the same. It was going a little fast but this was no different to other buses. Several times the bus cut off to the right to overtake cars before getting back to the left lane. It could appear reckless, but you have to accept that it's the only alternative when there are always some cars, taxis and vans idling in the left lane, blocking the way.

Talking about the reasons behind Chadchart's survey results, a conductor who doesn't wish to be named assumed with a scornful laugh that people probably have too much time on their hands and they just use it to play Facebook.

''Other buses are doing the same thing but I don't see they get any complaints even though they use the far right lane to overtake other buses all the time,'' she said. ''We simply can't go straight when there are those taxis and vans parking. Sometimes the passengers are busy with their smartphones and they would ring the bell when the bus has already gone past the stop. We get complaints for stopping too suddenly and we get complaints for not dropping the passengers off properly.''

''We don't get salaries,'' says a bus driver. ''We get 10% of the ticket sales revenue while the conductor gets 5%.

''We don't get salaries,'' explained a driver who asked not to be named. ''We get 10% of the ticket sales revenue while the conductor gets 5%. If we get 5,000 baht a day, I only get 500 baht. There are more than 70 No. 8 buses, as well as plenty other buses from various lines. Think about how hard it is to get 5,000 a day at 8 baht a ticket. So when there's some bus about to take away our passengers, it's typical for us to try to overtake as well.''

''Just this morning I was stopped by the police twice even though I did absolutely nothing wrong,'' said Somboon Saengchai, another driver who is feeling hurt by the widely publicised result. ''There are about 50,000-60,000 people using No. 8 buses daily and who knows how many millions by the year. It's not right to use a few hundred votes as a criterion. This is not fair.''

Read the full story here:http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/interview/365626/fast-and-furious-8-life-in-the-slow-lane