More buses join discount on transfers in Shanghai

From today, bus riders using transport cards will get a fare discount of 0.5 yuan (6 US cents) on their second trip if they transfer to another downtown bus within 90 minutes of the first ride.

Almost all the transit buses within the Inner Ring Road will provide the fare discounts, on 409 of the 415 bus routes, said Shanghai Urban Transport Management Bureau.

The remaining six routes can't apply the discounts because the buses don't have transport card readers and are not air-conditioned.

An extra 209 bus routes will apply the government-funded discounts on the two-yuan fares from today, officials said.

The local government launched the discount program last year to attract more bus riders. Downtown routes account for 75 percent of the city's daily bus riders.

The transport authority said the number of riders using public transport cards increased to about 2.38 million daily in May from 2.27 million in January. They believe the discount policy was the major cause of the increase.

About 37 percent of the city's bus riders pay with transport cards, bureau officials said.