Dear Diary,

With the new year of 2017 comes new changes. After the general elections, NLD Government comes into force since 2016 April. The government changes the country step by little step, for a better and prosper future. The government of Yangon region announced the end of the old bus system namely MaHtaTha (မထသ) in early January and the new bus system monitored by YRTA (Yangon Region Transport Authority) will be in place by 16th January 2017. All existing MaHtaTha (မထသ), Than Myan Thu (သန်မြန်သူ), Ah Di Pa Ti (အဓိပတိ), YBPC’s BRT, etc… will come to a halt and all the buses will have to operate on new routes under the name of YBS (Yangon Bus Service). Before this, there were over 300 bus routes in Yangon with each routes overlapping one another and the buses would compete with one another in order to get passengers. Tensions rises with competition and traffic is also a factor. For the safety of passengers, YRTA was formed.

300 routes were reduced to 70 (Actual 69, as 13 was omitted) to this date (2017/1/23). At initial announcement, there were 60 routes and later changed to 61 before (2017/1/16) when it comes to action. But after the actual launch, due to the necessity and feedback from customers, another 9 routes were added making a total of 70 Bus Numbers. As soon as the government releases the data, I started adding stops and routes in OpenStreetMap. There aren’t many mappers who seems to be interested in this for Yangon Region, so the progress seems slow. YBS consists of 5 colours. Blue, Red, Purple, Green and Brown. Each representing Northern Based Lines, Eastern Based Lines, Southern Based Lines, Feeder Lines to Main Roads and Circular Lines through the Central Business District.

To this day, I have mapped a total of 19 Routes out of 70 (4 Blue Lines, 5 Red Lines, 4 Purple Lines, 3 Green Lines, 3 Brown Lines). I will continue to map the lines as accurately as possible. My first priority is to add a rough location of the bus stops and complete all the routes. My second priority will be adding all bus stops accurately on each side of the road. And finally, review and confirmation. My Diary, please tell to those who are also mapping or are interested in mapping the bus stops, bus routes in Yangon to feel free and contact or ask me. I will also map as much as I possibly can.

Regards, Htike Aung Kyaw