Ho Chi Minh City is preparing to allocate around VND7 trillion (US$280 million) annually to make bus travel free across the city, with authorities aiming to finalize the policy by late April.
280 million / ( 14 million (city population) x 0.76 (76% Vietnam’s population over 14 years) )
~$27 / adult
does anyone know if the annual cost of private vehicle ownership in Vietnam is more or less than $27? please help I can’t tell if this is good value or not
This is the part that I think a lot of people forget when discussing making transit free. I have seen how much the contracts cost for payment systems, and how often ticket machines and tourniquets need to be maintained. Having a barrier-free transit system (both physically and economically) is in many ways much simpler.
The amount of graft and grifting that goes on with the contracts for the digital architecture of public transport ticketing…
Or another example: the NYC metro spending millions to develop a door with spikes, not to mention how much installation costs.
Of course you can’t completely eliminate personnel costs for personnel, even for unmanned trains. You still need people on board to create a sense of safety, but now they can be trained with that in mind and the money can be spent on that and it will be much less still.
My favourite version of “camouflaged safety personnel” is the kiosks that used to be on a bunch of stations, running 24/7 even though that did not create a profit. They were open 24/7 so people had a place to wait at night without being afraid. Or maybe not - In some cases they were just open because capitalism wasn’t as focused in points shaving back then, but the side effect was the same
There’s been a lot of cutbacks in most countries that mean public transport isn’t as good as it could be. There should be some safety staff, but most places won’t have them. It sucks. Hopefully any place that experiments with free public transport will still keep some staff around, even if it’s not the most bigmoney move
napkin math
280 million / ( 14 million (city population) x 0.76 (76% Vietnam’s population over 14 years) )
~$27 / adult
does anyone know if the annual cost of private vehicle ownership in Vietnam is more or less than $27? please help I can’t tell if this is good value or not
Plus they now dont have to spend money on ticket controllers or ticket-selling Infrastructure
This is the part that I think a lot of people forget when discussing making transit free. I have seen how much the contracts cost for payment systems, and how often ticket machines and tourniquets need to be maintained. Having a barrier-free transit system (both physically and economically) is in many ways much simpler.
The amount of graft and grifting that goes on with the contracts for the digital architecture of public transport ticketing…
Or another example: the NYC metro spending millions to develop a door with spikes, not to mention how much installation costs.
Of course you can’t completely eliminate personnel costs for personnel, even for unmanned trains. You still need people on board to create a sense of safety, but now they can be trained with that in mind and the money can be spent on that and it will be much less still.
My favourite version of “camouflaged safety personnel” is the kiosks that used to be on a bunch of stations, running 24/7 even though that did not create a profit. They were open 24/7 so people had a place to wait at night without being afraid. Or maybe not - In some cases they were just open because capitalism wasn’t as focused in points shaving back then, but the side effect was the same
I don’t believe there are any staff aboard the automated trains in Vancouver. Perhaps it depends on historical perception of safety on the system.
There’s been a lot of cutbacks in most countries that mean public transport isn’t as good as it could be. There should be some safety staff, but most places won’t have them. It sucks. Hopefully any place that experiments with free public transport will still keep some staff around, even if it’s not the most bigmoney move