PHUKET'S Transport Department is taking over Phuket's new bus depot from a seemingly reluctant Rassada Phuket City local council - and will aim to get four new routes rolling from October 1.

Three letters to Rassada council have failed to coax Rassada officials into the bus driver's seat, so the Transport Department is steering this show. Four new routes will arrive with the October 1 opening: Phuket-Pattaya, Phuket-Chiang Rai, Phuket-Ubon and Phuket-Nonkai.

This means a huge time saving in avoiding Bangkok for Phuket passengers going north and east.

Reluctant Rassada, where a new passage through the median strip would have pointed directly at the mayor's house, will have a chance to resume control of the new bus terminal in three months.

A group of Rassada officials went to Korat to see how the large bus depot there worked, and it was in Korat that the officials realised the most efficient system involved a new gap through the Thepkasattri Road median strip.

Without the new gap, buses will instead head in the wrong direction towards Phuket City in the left lane, then swing right into the existing median strip u-turn gap before heading north.

The Director of the Transport Department, Kanok Siuripanichkoon, announced the fresh opening date and the takeover of the new bus depot to a media conference at Provincial Hall in Phuket City today.

He apologised that Rassada's reluctance has led to the new depot opening later than planned. The old bus depot off Phang Nga Road will soon after become home for the seung taew local buses that have traditionally departed from the fresh market in the heart of old Phuket Town.