Saigoneers without private vehicles might be happy to hear that the city is planning to make the municipal bus system free to ride in the near future.
Just this week, at a municipal meeting on April 1, Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee Trần Lưu Quang announced that Hồ Chí Minh City will remove bus fares in a bid to reduce road congestion and air pollution, VnExpress reports.
At the moment, bus trips in Saigon cost on average VND5,000–7,000 per trip for single-use tickets, but are already free for special groups of riders including children under 6, older adults over 60, war veterans, and people living with disabilities. Students can ride with fare discounts.
Overall, the subsidy scheme accounts for around VND1.7 trillion per year of the city budget, and it’s estimated that the cost will balloon to VND7 trillion should the policy be expanded to cover all riders. It’s unclear at the time of writing when the free buses will come into effect.
Beside making bus transportation free, Saigon plans to implement a number of upgrades to entice city dwellers to take buses more often, including improving service quality, expanding bus routes, and converting more routes to green energy-only.
According to Tuổi Trẻ, HCMC’s bus network current has around 2,325 vehicles, 1,082 of which (46.5%) run on green energy, including electric buses and CNG (compressed natural gas) buses. In the first quarter of 2026, that number is expected to rise to 58.4% with the addition of 500 electric vehicles — part of the municipal plan to phase out fossil fuel in city buses completely by 2030.
Saigon has been overhauling its bus network in recent years by allowing certain routes to be privately operated. These include electric-only lines that are run by VinBus and Futa Buslines.
