RATCHATHEWI — Ahead of rush hour at Victory Monument, three teenagers stood at a torn-up bus stop on Phahonyothin Island, passing a megaphone between them in the 40-degree heat.

“The bus parked in front is No. 166 to Pak Kret, Central Chaengwattana, Major Hollywood, Wat Bo, the pier,” one said into the megaphone. “The second bus is No. 2-10E, going toward The Mall Ngamwongwan, passing through Khae Rai Intersection.”

That voice belongs to Ryutaro Pushkin Kimura, a 17-year-old student from St. Francis Xavier School in Nonthaburi.

He doesn’t work for a transit agency. He’s a co-founder of Sriwisa Transit, a group of high school and college students who decided that if the government won’t make public transit information more accessible, they will.

Every week, they volunteer across some of Bangkok’s busiest transit hubs, helping passengers navigate a bus system that even regular riders call incomprehensible.

They announce arriving buses, answer questions in Thai and English and install bilingual bus-stop signs — paid for out of their own allowances.

But behind the megaphones and colorful signs lies a critique from the students: their group shouldn’t have to exist.

“This shouldn’t be a job for us,” Ryutaro said. “If there were clear signs and information, everything ends. We wouldn’t need to do this.”

At Victory Monument, confusion often starts with a route number.

Ryutaro pointed to Route 166 as an example. Some buses go directly to Muang Thong Thani, others detour through Pak Kret first, and some supplementary services skip Muang Thong altogether. Despite the different patterns, they all carry the same number.

Baramee Tongthai, a 16-year-old from Triam Udom Suksa Phatthanakan School, often helps foreign passengers because many transit workers don’t speak English.

Foreigners usually ask how to get to Muang Thong Thani by bus from the monument, Ryutaro added. While taking the Pink Line is an option, buses can be faster if passengers know which one to board. They’d have to explain the Route 166 variation.

“At least we're giving foreigners the opportunity to experience riding a bus in Thailand,” Ryutaro said. “I feel proud that they're trying to use a bus system that's not always convenient for them.”

Chanothai Rojjanaphanukorn, a 16-year-old from Horwang Nonthaburi School, said they’ve learned route information through apps like ViaBus, personal passion and years of commuting.

“This kind of information exists — but the question is whether people who need it for their daily lives have access to it,” Ryutaro added. “I don’t think so.”

Sriwisa Transit was founded in May 2025 by Panumes Sriwisathiyakun, a first-year student at Mahidol University who had already been volunteering solo.

“I realized that even simple guidance could make public transportation much more accessible and less intimidating,” Panumes said.

Today, the group has eight core members and is recruiting more volunteers.

While guiding passengers with a megaphone provides immediate relief, the students quickly realized standing on a hot curb wasn’t a permanent fix.

“If we’re not there, it’s over,” Ryutaro said.

So they started building something that could outlast them: bilingual bus-stop signs printed with route information.

Baramee, who leads the efforts for eastern Bangkok and Samut Prakan, said the first signs went up at Muang Thong Thani, followed by another set at Seacon Square. More are now in the works near Satrinonthaburi School and Nonthaburi Pier.

“We don’t have a funded budget from anyone,” Baramee said. Each sign costs 300 to 500 baht, an expense the members split.

The signs are inspired by MAYDAY, a group known for transit wayfinding design around Bangkok. But Baramee said much of that work has focused on the central business district, leaving suburban commuters with outdated or incomplete information.

Sriwisa Transit hopes to fill some of those gaps.

Each installation requires permission from whoever owns the bus stop. One recent request for a Bangkok-managed site was rejected because the city already had plans to install its own sign there, Baramee said.

Bangkok has more than 5,000 bus stops; about 1,100 of them have been undergoing upgrades. This includes 600 newly designed bus stops and 500 single-pole digital bus stops. Those upgrades feature route information, some with real-time updates.

Living in Prawet, Baramee has noticed the online route information often didn’t match the buses operating there. That prompted him to design the Seacon Square sign.

Since then, commuters have thanked the group for providing clearer route information. Their work has also attracted media attention, a note from a lawmaker and an invitation to visit Thai Smile Bus headquarters.

“It has an impact on people who needed that information,” he said. “I’m proud to have been a part of helping to make buses truly accessible.”

To the students, the need for their volunteer work points to larger shortcomings in how Bangkok’s transit system is managed.

Baramee said responsibility lies with state agencies that, in his view, haven’t done enough to make the network easy to navigate. But he credited the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration for showing greater interest in improving bus stops.

His primary frustration lies with the Department of Land Transport and the Ministry of Transport, particularly over route planning and fleet sizes that he said don’t reflect actual demand.

Much of that traces back to a 2017 route reform meant to simplify the network through a new numbering system. But many passengers continued relying on the old route numbers, saying the transition created parallel confusion. Several renumbered routes also remain planned but not yet in service.

“People end up paying twice for a transfer or having to use taxis or motorcycle taxis, which makes the service inadequate,” he said. 

The priority, he said, should be making buses easier for those who rely on them most, including older adults and people with disabilities.

Ryutaro, however, doesn’t expect Sriwisa Transit to solve these systemic problems. He just hopes their work fills the gaps untile the state steps up.

“This kind of volunteering isn’t sustainable,” he said, nodding back at the sign project. “But if we have signs with useful information, they stay — as long as they don’t break,” he said. “So we keep trying to push for more.”

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