Daily 50,000 BusPassengers Expected during New Year

BANGKOK, Dec 21 (TNA) – State-run Transport Co expects about 50,000 people will board inter-provincial buses per day during the New Year holiday. The traffic will rise because the situation of the two-year COVID-19 pandemic improves. Transport Co chairman Sorapong Paitoonpong said that 50,000 people would board inter-provincial buses a day on Dec 28 and the exodus traffic would rise to 55,000 a day on Dec 29. For return trips, inter-provincial buses would serve 53,000 people a day on Jan 2 and 3. Transport Co prepared 3,200-4,000 bus trips a day during the New Year holiday, he said. Ekarat Sri-arayanpong, PR director of the State Railway of Thailand, said the SRT would deploy six extra trains to serve about 8,000 additional passengers a day on northern and northeastern routes. Tickets of the special trains have been available since Dec 17. The SRT would use its full capacity of carrying 100,000 people a day and would not leave any passenger stranded, he said. Meanwhile, Thai AirAsia will raise its seats and flight frequencies by 15-20% in December. It will operate 18 flights a day on highly demanded domestic routes such as the Bangkok-Chiang Mai route from both Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi airports. (TNA)