Yangon bus system overhaul set to start
Yangon’s infamous public bus system – where commuters are dragged by callous conductors onto ageing vehicles operated by drivers with scant regard for road safety – is about to change. A long-awaited transformation of the bus network, which some 80 percent of the commercial capital’s 2.8 million daily commuters depend upon, will begin at the end of this week, the regional government’s chief minister U Phyo Min Thein said on January 6. He added that the main request he received from ordinary people on his social media page was for an overhaul of the transport system as soon as possible. “It became the most important problem so we’ve changed the system,” he said. The most immediate change is that starting from January 16 the chaotic web of some 300 bus individual lines will be whittled down to just 58. But although the region government has been working on the new system for months, other elements are still being finalised.
