According to the Public Transport Management Center, Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport, the above bus routes are operated by Saigon Bus Joint Stock Company (Saigonbus) and Phuong Trang Futabuslines Joint Stock Company. These are subsidized routes, which were bid for by the city before choosing the above two units to operate.

Of the 16 routes, Futabuslines operates 11 routes with numbers: 29, 57, 99, 141, 68, 102, 16, 41, 61, 73 and 151. The remaining routes include: 6, 10, 50, 52 and 91, operated by Saigonbus. The Public Transport Management Center said that these routes have all had old vehicles replaced with new vehicles, equipped with air conditioning, journey monitoring, security cameras, ticket machines... Of which, 195 vehicles run on diesel and 44 vehicles use CNG fuel.

The fare for the route remains unchanged from the present, 6,000 VND per passenger, 135,000 VND/30 tickets. The fare for students is 5,000 VND.

According to a representative of Futabuslines, the buses operating on 11 routes that the unit is preparing to exploit are of the 55-seat type (standing and sitting). These routes are free for passengers who are children under 1.3 m tall; war invalids, sick soldiers; people with disabilities; the elderly...

Ho Chi Minh City currently has about 90 subsidized bus routes. Recently, the city's transport sector has bid to operate the routes according to new criteria, and so far, more than 20 routes have been selected for operation, with a term of 5 years.

The bidding mechanism for operating routes helps create competition, select units with enough capacity to improve service quality, and attract more bus users. The 5-year contract implementation period also helps businesses proactively develop plans, calculate revenue and profits to implement customer attraction solutions.

Gia Minh