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I sincerely believe they should not be suspected of having a hidden agenda in having BMTA lease 6,000 buses.

It seems the ministry has very good intentions. All 6,000 buses will be air-conditioned. All are new, unlike those creaky dinosaurs we see on the roads. This should increase the level of comfort for Bangkok commuters who are offered few choices. Certainly, air-conditioned buses will be less dusty than ancient rust crates.

Songsak's explanation also supports the policy well. Though originally, BMTA did not mean to lease all new NGV-fuelled air-conditioned buses, but rather had a plan to retrofit some of the old buses with NGV. However, the retrofitting could entail huge maintenance costs in the long term - which is not good for BMTA.

Though BMTA's labour union suggested that 2,000 of the new buses should not be air-conditioned in order to make fares cheaper, Songsak is confident

the fare is affordable and the air-conditioned buses should also serve as an alternative for commuters.

He's right. The NGV-fuelled bus fare would be set at "only" Bt15 per person, compared to the starting fare of Bt18 charged by existing diesel-driven air-conditioned buses.

At only Bt15, the bus fare is cheaper than a one-dish meal which now costs Bt25 or Bt30. Most commuters take a single bus to their workplace, as Songsak said. So, it does not make sense to take into account those commuters who have to pay fares twice to get to their offices, or those who also need to pay extra for a motorcycle taxi to get to the mouth of their sois.

It seems Santi and Songsak's main aim is to bolster the travelling comfort of commuters. As such, I genuinely believe that both Santi and Songsak will come up with policies to have BMTA further improve its service. Aside from the introduction of the new buses, they may require all bus drivers to pass a test to ensure that commuters are treated better.

A scene from TV tells a good story. A bus driver fixes the ceiling fan on himself, though the fan was installed for commuters when BMTA used it as the reason to raise fares.

Certainly, Santi and Songsak should know about this though.Like other ministers, they are riding in air-conditioned vans - in a world far, far away from people on the streets.