Welcome aboard the No. 8 bus.

Infamous in the Thai capital, the No. 8 route has spawned parody songs, viral TikToks, horrified YouTube videos, and even a feature-length “Fast & Furious”-style film.

Now, the old-fashioned diesel buses are being phased out and replaced with cleaner electric models. But the hair-raising antics of the “Pink Devils”, as Thais call them, mask the tough conditions for overworked drivers incentivised to complete their routes as fast as possible.

“It is a competition,” said driver Aphisak Sodmui, who has helmed his “hot” bus – as the non-air-conditioned, usually open-windowed models are known – for the past decade.

Roughly 60 such buses work the 30km route, charging passengers 10 baht (RM1.22) going north-south – part of Bangkok’s wider network that carries roughly 700,000 people a day.

A succession of high-profile No. 8 deaths in recent years have raised calls for reform, and now new firms are overhauling the system, promising an improved service and replacing the buses with electric vehicles.

And it does not look like the No. 8 will shake its reputation so easily – one of the newly inaugurated buses has already crashed, although no one was injured.

‘Not frightening’

The problem, according to Thai transport expert Sumet Ongkittikul, lies with the private firms who lease the route concession from the central Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA).

Under their management, drivers are given a share of the ticket sales for each journey, on top of their salaries.

“So it is very logical that each driver tries to rush to get as many passengers as possible,” he explained. “Even within the company, the drivers are racing each other to get the passengers.”

Aphisak, the driver, supplements his daily wage of between 150 and 200 baht with 10% of the daily ticket sales.

“We have to complete the route at least four times a day for us to have enough money to live,” he said. “What we hope is that the new operator will give more attention to training their drivers… to behave better.”

Denying the No. 8’s reputation, Yothin Wuttisakchaikul – whose family manages one of the routes – blamed it instead on online commenters who have “never used this bus service before”.

“Actual passengers would know the actual service of Bus No. 8,” he said, adding that while drivers competed, “it is not to a frightening degree”.

‘Definitely improved’

It’s 3.30am at a bus depot in the city’s northeast, and Aphisak and his family are preparing for the day.

He starts his shift at 4am, clambering aboard with partner and bus conductor Arunee On-sawats and – on the day AFP accompanied them – their two boys, 11-year-old Phan and eight-year-old Mon.

As a No. 8 driver, he will not finish until 9pm or later, if there is rain or heavy traffic – two near-daily guarantees in Bangkok.

Aphisak, who, like his children, grew up on buses with his conductor father, said he has never collided with cars, but admits that “pickup trucks mostly crashed the bus I was driving in”.

Customer Sai Pin, 47, said she has seen a change since the transition to the new buses, which now have a slightly higher fare of 15 baht.

“With the old buses, you might encounter lots of fast driving. The new buses have definitely improved on that,” she said.