Bus services are massively over-booked as people attempt to return home for the Tet holiday period.

Hanoi police yesterday set up two check-points near the city's most crowded station, My Dinh, on Pham Hung Street to deal with the rising traffic violations including buses illegally stopping to pick up additional passengers and operating at over-capacity.

These checkpoints are only capable of covering 200 metres, while most coaches ignore the rules and slow down to catch more passengers on nearby streets.

Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper yesterday afternoon reported dozens of coaches heading to Quang Ninh, Tuyen Quang, Ninh Binh illegally stopping to pick up passengers along Pham Hung Street, adding to traffic congestion.

At Giap Bat Station in the south of Hanoi on February 1, dozens of men touted for customers, even ending in physical confrontations as they argued over who would go on their buses.

Following the scenes, Deputy Minister of Transport, Le Dinh Tho, urged the management board here to quickly curb this problem.  

"This chaos is making people scared of coming into the station," Tho said. "We should implement measures to end this, we can’t have these sorts of scenes when people are just trying to catch buses."

Overcrowding

The Ho Chi Minh Highway which links the south-eastern region with the Central Highlands and central region has been extremely busy with long-distance coaches operating at dangerously crowded levels.

According to policeman Pham Huu Phuong from Dak Lak Province, they are seeing a rising number of violations, including speeding and excessive passenger numbers.

"On February 1 we detained a 30-seater Minh Phuong bus running from HCM City to Hue packed with 43 passengers, while the driver couldn’t even show us his driving license," Phuong said.

Phuong added that large numbers of fines had been dished out and dozens of driving licences had been confiscated in recent days.

In order to deal with violations in transportation services, the National Committee on Traffic Safety on February 2 announced 12 hotlines for people to report violations or accidents.