The impact of COVID-19 and related containment measures on Bangkok’s public transport ridership

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and related measures used to contain its spread affected public transport ridership in cities around the world. In Thailand, the government issued 41 Royal Decrees between April 2020 and December 2021 to mitigate the spread of the pandemic. In this study, we investigate how Bangkok's public transport services (bus, metro, and boat) have been affected during this period by analyzing the daily ridership data, confirmed COVID-19 cases, and aggregated travel trends by trip destinations using from Google mobility reports. The results show that public transport ridership decreased as daily COVID cases increased and the levels of restraining measures became higher. However, other factors, such as relative strictness compared to earlier measures and sequencing of the measures seems to have had an impact on the ridership. Moreover, the impact on ridership trends is unique for each of the three modes. Bus and metro ridership appear to be more sensitive to the changes in restrictions than the boats. Bus and metro ridership also shows similar changes in the travel trends concerning the place of visit. The findings reported here provide first insights into how Bangkok's public transport systems were affected and suggest the rationale of why different public transport modes were affected differently. These results can be useful for researchers and for decision-makers who plan and design policies and measures for public transport services.