HCMC – With an additional 75 routes shifted from the old station, the new Mien Dong coach station, located in Thu Duc City, will have some 100 routes in October.
The Saigon Transportation Mechanical Corporation (Samco), the investor of the Mien Dong coach station, has submitted its plan to the HCMC People’s Committee to shift all operating routes from the old station to the new one.
Currently, the new station is entering the first phase with 22 long-haul routes from Quang Tri to further north.
According to Samco, 75 more routes will be redirected on October 11, excluding those passing National Highway No.14, with over 1,600 vehicles belonging to 89 transport enterprises, accounting for more than 50% of the total routes in the former.
When the operation is stable and transport connectivity is better, 60 more remaining routes will be shifted to the new station.
The new Mien Dong coach station broke ground in April 2017 with an area of 16 hectares in Thu Duc City and a total investment of VND4 trillion. The station has designs of four sectors — A, B, C, and D — including the wharf land, bus stations, transit area and commercial service area.
In the first phase, stations and parking lots were constructed with a total investment of VND740 billion. However, even after two years of operations, the station did not appear to receive many passengers.
According to the HCMC Department of Transport, this is due to poor bus route connectivity. The department also came up with a solution to lead other bus routes to this new station.
