Beijing Public Transport Holdings (BPT), a State-owned operator of buses in the capital city of China, launched an online survey Monday to collect statistics and opinions for its planned "customized" bus service.

According to the survey website, the new service, scheduled for operation in September, aims to encourage private car owners to make more use of public transportation in a bid to relieve traffic congestion and reduce car exhaust pollution in Beijing.

The fact that BPT is creating a new service based on demographic diversification to reduce private car use is "commendable," Yang Fuqiang, a senior advisor on climate and energy with the Beijing office of the US non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), told the Global Times Monday.

Although Beijing's buses and subways form one of the most developed public transport networks in China, the city has largely failed to attract private car owners to become active public transport users, the NRDC said in a research report in April.

A lack of comfort and convenience is one of the main reasons car owners do not choose buses or subways, Yang said.

The customized buses would guarantee seats for every passenger and take passengers directly to their destinations on designated bus routes, BPT said. The buses also have Wi-Fi, it added.

The service will mainly connect dense residential areas, such as Tiantongyuan and Huilongguan in northern Beijing, with main office areas, such as CBD in the east and the Financial Street in the west, a BPT employee in charge of the survey told the Global Times Monday on the condition of anonymity.

He said each bus would carry 30 to 40 passengers, replacing 20 to 30 private cars, adding that the bus service would be provided in a monthly package priced at around 30 percent of the estimated costs of driving a passenger car.

According to the BPT, the customized bus would charge 15 yuan ($2.44) for a 20-kilometer return ride - much higher than Beijing's current universal bus ticket price for transit card holders of 0.4 yuan for non-students and 0.2 yuan for students.

The Beijing municipal government subsidized its public transportation with 17 billion yuan in 2012, and the subsidy has kept increasing year by year, news portal cctv.com reported Monday, citing Han Jiezeng, a deputy bureau chief at the Beijing Finance Bureau.

Media reports speculated that the government would be forced to raise public transport prices next year, after a recent hike in the city's taxi fares.

Providing high-priced services to cater to the demands of certain groups of individuals is a better stra­tegy than raising the prices across the board, said Yang.

Yang estimated that the custo­mized buses would reduce private car use in Beijing by up to 8 percent.