Traveling in the big city of Bangkok will get a tad easier now that Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) signed a contract last Thursday for 2,600 city buses to start using a swipe card system.
According to the acting director of BMTA, Somsak Hommuang, the system will be up and running for the first 800 buses by Oct. 1, and within about 10 months, more than 2,600 buses in Bangkok should accept the much-hyped multi-transport spider card, reported Bangkok Post.
The card system will not only increase the efficiency of the buses but also cut down on employment costs.
As for fear that many employees working for the BMTA may lost their jobs due to this change, officials said that isn’t the case and that affected employees will be reassigned to other positions that suit their qualifications or be offered early retirement.
Spider card is an all-in-one public transportation card which can be used to pay for the BTS and MRT as well as these buses, according to Voice TV.
After years of waiting, the public will get to use the Spider Card for the first time on Oct. 1, but as we expected, in the initial launch, the card will only work with a few stops—only the interchange stations between the BTS and MRT.
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