BusTalk

[thaitransit]

Last weekend while in Rangsit photographing the buses of the area I stumbled across the BMTA Rangsit bus depot and the Rangsit Metro bus terminal.

The Rangsit BMTA bus depot is located behind the shophouses on Rangsit – Pathum Thani road. This depot holds most of the BMTA buses for the BMTA bus routes to and from Bangkok. The depot is mostly just a bus storage area with a small open area for bus repair plus a major refueling point for both NGV and Diesel buses. The refueling point is provided at cost by PTT a state owned oil and gas company.

Also located behind the shophouses but off another soi further from the SRT railway line but on the same road is the Bus terminal and Depot for the Pathum Thani Bus Company. Unlike the BMTA depot passengers often board buses inside the depot area. The bus services that operate from the Pathum Thani Bus terminal are mostly semi rural and urban commuter bus routes. Some are very frequent others just a few times an hour. All routes operate 7 days a week.

Near the BMTA Rangsit bus depot is a small holding area and terminal for the Thanyaburi bus company’s services. But it appears the majority of its buses are stored elsewhere. Its terminal area doubles as a morning wet market for central Rangsit area.

In regards to finding these bus terminals as a new passenger will it would be hard as they are not marked and hidden from view behind a row of 4 story shophouses. A small improvement would be to have signs on the main road indicating there location.

These bus terminals are very basic with no waiting area for passengers or shelters. They are basically just a large but rough concrete area on which the buses wait. At these terminals passengers wait on the buses until the driver comes as the buses are never closed up while driver is having a quick break.

This 1st section of images was taken inside the refueling area of the BMTA Rangsit bus depot. Passengers don’t normally board buses inside the depot but outside on the main road.

1. This is a shot of a now discontinued Route 3: Rangsit – Pink Lao – Southern Bus terminal Bus. Bus number BMTA 1 – 2005. Bus type MAN. These buses are over 10 years old but no longer in use. The reason for there lack of use is unknown. But it appears they have been parked like this for years.



3. This is a shot of another MAN Route 3 bus. Bus number BMTA 1 – 2018. Bus type MAN. It seems BMTA doesn’t really care about what happens to these buses as the doors are left open to the weather. Normally BMTA sells off its unwanted buses to private bus companies.


4. This is an inside shot of a Merc O405 metro bus. Taken facing the rear of the bus. Note the strange seating layout at the rear with longitudinal seating. This is only Thai metro bus to have this layout.



6. This is an inside shot of a Hino aircon metro bus. Note the seating layout of this bus. The front part of the bus is 1 + 1 seating to increase standing capacity. A bus like this can pack in around 100 people.



8. This is an image of a few Merc O405 metro buses parked next to the PTT refueling point. These buses where used exclusively on Route 503. All of these buses where built as CNG units. Note: the middle one appears to be no longer in service.



9. This is a general view of the Rangsit bus depot. This section appears to be mostly used to store aircon buses and buses that are no longer required. A larger bus holding area is located south of the refueling point.



11. This is an image of the driver’s seat on the Merc O405. The 3 different versions of these aircon buses all have different dashboards and driver’s seat area layouts.



13. This is an image of a couple of no longer in service metro buses. The bus that is strangely stuck up in the air is the Daewoo version of these orange aircon metro buses. The white Merc O405 bus appears to be out of service and used to operate on Route 559: Rangsit – Suvarnabhumi Airport via Kanchanaphisek road. This route no longer operates.



17. This is a side on shot of a Route 1156 bus. Bus number 1156 – 4. Bus type Merc aircon. Note this bus appears to have a mid mounted engine. This is very unusual for Thai buses. Most are rear or front. Also this bus has front and middle plug style doors that are likely to be damaged in the future.



22. This is a general view showing the Pathum Thani buses waiting at the Rangsit metro bus terminal. Approximately 8 bus routes operate from this terminal all operated by Pathum Thani Bus company.



If you would like to see more images and find out more about the buses of Rangsit Metro Bus terminal and Depot then please visit:

http://thaitransit.blogspot.com/2008/12/rangsit-metro-bus-terminal-and-bus.html

I hope you find the pictures and vehicles shown to be of interest if you view this please post some comments and feelings about the pictures.

[Cyberider]

Thanks for sharing the interesting information and photos of the buses and bus facilities of your country, thaitransit!