Bangkok Mass Transit Authority

Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (Thai: องค์การขนส่งมวลชนกรุงเทพ), also known as BMTA; (Thai: ขสมก.), is the main operator of public transit buses within Greater Bangkok area.

BMTA started operations on October 1, 1976 as a state enterprise, taking over the operations and assets of private companies. However, a large number of private buses continues to operate under the supervison and control of BMTA. Private buses can be identified by a yellow instead of a green waist band on the cream-red and cream-blue buses (though initially all buses apparently had the same livery without the coloured waist band). Also, the private buses are numbered by using the route number and (mostly) starting with number 1. BMTA buses are numbered in 1000- and 10000-series, except for the first series in the 1970’s which had lower numbers. Below is a reconstruction of bus series since 1976, based on observations, information in Buses World Wide, Jane’s Urban Transit and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok_Mass_Transit_Authority. Older pictures of the fleet show various Mercedes models. Also, some Csepel chassis were bodied by Cherdchai, presumably beginning of the 1990’s.

Fleet according to Jane’s Urban Transit:
ca 1980: 4902 (1262 Mercedes, 240 Volvo, 1687 Hino, 1600 Isuzu, 113 Leyland + 500 private buses) (Jane’s 1983)
ca 1985: 4902 (1000 Mercedes, 240 Volvo, 1720 Hino, 1180 Isuzu, 1434 “others” + 500 private buses) (Jane’s 1987)
ca 1992: 4900 (1200 older Hino+Isuzu, 950 Daewoo, 900 Hino, 600 Isuzu, 600 Mitsubishi, 600 Mercedes aircon, 150 Isuzu micro+ 2000 private buses, mainly Mercedes) (Jane’s 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998).
Also: delivery of ca 2000 new aircon buses from 1994 onwards is mentioned, though it appears only a few hundred were really bought.
Around the beginning of the new millennium some 1300 new orange buses were put into service.

THE LIST BELOW IS DEFINTELY INCOMPLETE; ADDITIONS ARE MOST WELCOME!