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| Sunday, 30 June 2002 |
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Editorial |  |
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Editor, Sunday Observer. E-mail: [email protected] Snail mail : Sunday Observer, 35, D.R.Wijewardana Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Telephone : 94 1 429239 / 331181 Fax : 94 1 429230 Quality of bus services Just as the frequency of train accidents increased in the United Kingdom following the privatisation of British Rail, the same has happened in this country with the public bus services. The old Ceylon Transport Board or 'CTB', as it was popularly known, not only possessed one of the world's largest single bus fleets, but it was also highly respected for the quality of its driving staff and its commuter services. In fact it was only after the bus service was privatised that the Sri Lankan public realised the value of the old CTB. Even today, the Central Transport Board driver training school is the most popular in the country because it is considered to give the best training in vehicle driving of all kinds. The country's private bus services have, meanwhile, earned the reputation of fielding the most murderous motor vehicles on the country's roads today. The private commuter bus is the single biggest killer of people on our roads, being responsible for hundreds of fatalities every year and thousands of injuries, including people maimed for life. As if the dangerously poor quality of the handling of buses is not enough, the general quality of bus services available today is not in the least comparable to the islandwide services provided by the CTB in the past. Although some high traffic routes like Colombo-Kandy and Colombo-Galle have a very high frequency of buses, this frequency is only during peak commuting hours and dwindles to nothing in the late-night period. Thus, there are virtually no routes anywhere in the country that have continuous, regular services throughout the day and night except some long distance services which overnight services. And this is despite the massive expansion of the industrial economy with tens of thousands of people working on shifts round-the-clock. And those routes which are not so profitable have very low frequencies of service while there are a large number of routes which were serviced by the CTB in the past but no longer have that kind of regular bus service at all. The problem that is at the root of all this is the gross failure of the privatisation exercise. In handing over the bus services to the private sector, the Government neglected, and continues to neglect, the regulation of these services in order to ensure a quality of service to the public that is at least the same, if not better than what the State provided earlier. For example, nearly two decades after the bus services were privatised, buses on most short distance route services still do not issue tickets to passengers! Of course, this is the least of the problems. The more lethal, and socio-economically harmful ones, such as those described above, are so oppressive to the ordinary citizen that it is no wonder that mobs often go berserk and indiscriminately attack buses in the aftermath of a fatal accident involving a bus. The tighter regulation of bus services is long overdue. With bus fares also rising rapidly in recent months, the public's general impatience with the private bus services is stretched to the breaking point by the very poor quality of service that people receive. In the National Transport Commission, the Government already has in place the basic mechanism for the regulation of services. Its powers need to be enhanced with stronger punitive capabilities together with greatly enhanced capacities to monitor services islandwide and enforce the regulations. But what is needed most of all is the political will to confront the bus companies and entrepreneurs and ensure that they meet their commitments as laid down in their licence to serve. |
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