To beat monstrosity of private bus strikes :

Public transport service needs overhaul- SLTB chairman

By Ranil WIJAYAPALA

The all-island private bus strike launched last Monday, demanding a bus fare hike to suit the increased fuel prices by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation became an eye opener for many in the country to have a better equipped public sector transport system as many of them became victims of the islandwide strike launched by private bus operators who are enjoying the lion's share in the bus transportation sector.

Many of the people who had no other means of transportation had to suffer as a number of Sri Lanka Transport Board buses could not match the demand for buses, leaving the commuters high and dry on the streets.

The scenario created on Monday became a classic example to show that the private bus operators are slowly and steadily taking over the monopoly of the bus transportation sector almost reverting it to the era prior to the nationalisation of the bus service during the S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike regime.

Increased diesel prices might have given a fair reason for the private bus operators to launch a strike but the absence of a proper State bus service to meet the demand of the general public became a weapon for the private bus operators to have a 20 per cent bus fare hike in the face of the diesel price hike. Less than 5,000 buses run by the Sri Lanka Transport Board in the absence of 20,000 odd private buses became a noticeable mismatch in the bus transportation industry in the country.

One single message to emerge that day was that the private bus operators were in a position to cripple the entire country if they continue their strike to win any demand that may come across their way.

There may be arguments and counter arguments to say that they cannot continue such strikes even for three consecutive days, as they have to depend on their daily collection but the bottom line is that even if they continue their strike for three days the effects on the country will be worse.

"Why is the Government allowing the private sector to enjoy a monopoly in the bus transportation ?", is the most frequent question raised by the people, mainly the commuters who suffer daily at the hands of private bus operators due to indecent behaviour of bus crew, disregard for the rights of the commuters, and most importantly due to their greed for money.

Appeal

The fervent appeal of the general public is to have a decent bus service that can provide an efficient service to make their life more productive at their work places and also at the homefront.

"Whatever the steps taken by the Government, the National Transport Commission and by the Provincial Transport Authorities the discipline of the private bus crew is deteriorating day by day and there is no consistence in their service as their prime focus is only making money, not providing a service to the people, thus becoming a nuisance to the people", Nadeeka Dissanayake who travels daily from Nittambuwa to Colombo told the Sunday Observer. "What we need is a good bus service.

The SLTB is having a well disciplined bus crew and providing people friendly services, but it has to be improved to meet this demand after strengthening its fleet to give a good competition to the private sector bus services", Nadeeka said explaining her harrowing experience with the private bus service in the country.

However, she said that the SLTB buses which used to ply on their routes during day time when private buses are amicably available on the roads, do not even care to give a competition to the private buses.

"That is a reason that had led the SLTB to run at a loss. People are ready to board the SLTB buses but they are not willing to take them, may be they have been bribed by the private bus operators", she added.

The worst scenario is that the private bus operators are enjoying the monopoly of many commercially viable routes without allowing any SLTB buses to ply on these routes. For instance the 103 Fort-Narahenpita route is entirely run by the private buses and very seldom the services of the SLTB can be seen in that route.

"What would be the plight of the commuters in an event of a private bus strike", queried one commuter on the 103 Fort-Narahenpita road.

Similar to that route, many other routes have also been subjected to the monopoly of the private bus operators leaving the commuters high and dry in an event of a bus strike.

"We need to strike a balance between the private sector and the public sector bus service. Otherwise, we will have to face difficult situations in the future", Lambert Perera from Narahenpita said.

But, how equipped the Sri Lanka Transport Board to meet this demand by commuters is also a question that has to be taken into account when thinking of striking a balance between the private bus services and the SLTB bus services.

Defunct

The provision of an efficient public transport services to the common masses of the country was the prime aim of the re-establishing of then defunct Ceylon Transport Board as Sri Lanka Transport Board under the People's Alliance government but how far it has been achieved is a question that has to be answered by the authorities of the SLTB.

Despite many concerted efforts by various governments, the losses in SLTB has been continuing for the past few years recording a Rs. 8.4 billion in 2010, Rs. 9.3 billion in 2009 and Rs.6.2 billion in 2008 despite Treasury assistance for the SLTB to compensate the servicing of the uneconomical routes.

According to the SLTB statistics available with the SLTB, the operational fleet remained between 4,000 and 4,500 from 2007 to 2011 despite the Transport Ministry taking various measures to improve and increase the operational fleet of the SLTB when the number of private buses were on the increase against the SLTB buses.

Moreover we see more buses decaying in the bus depots than the number of buses operating on the routes.

"Though SLTB cannot operate these buses for not more than three years, the private bus operators are running those buses after purchasing them from the auctions", Deepal Walisinghe from Homagama said.

K.A.E. Brito of the Trade Union Organisation for the Protection of the Ceylon Transport Board, a trade unionist who was involved in the CTB from its inception, the condition of some of the SLTB buses are awful as many of these buses are idling in depots.

He pointed out that many minor employees with the backing of politicians have been promoted to the management level positions, thereby discouraging many of the SLTB employees."Corruption is rampant in the SLTB depots as inefficient people have been appointed to many of the management positions in the SLTB", he added.

He also pointed out that many strikes were also reported in bus depots due to the inability to pay the salaries of the workers on time.

"If we can run the Board with qualified people without any political interference we can get an efficient services from the SLTB", he added.

"We need to have this organisation to provide an efficient transport service to the country. First we have to formulate a real national policy and then a real national program to improve and streamline the services by the SLTB", he added.

"Then we also need real people who know about the subject of the transport sector and have a proper management in the depot level. If we do not take proper action and take only short-term measures action as remedies to these long-standing issuws, the SLTB will remain like this for ever", he added.

"To do all these things we need the State patronage as Ministers alone cannot do all these things as policy decisions have to be taken at the government level", he added.

People are also of the opinion that it is prime time for the Government to take action to strengthen the SLTB bus service by allocating funds to increase the SLTB fleet at least to give good competition to the private sector bus service.

Tolerance

"Today we have to tolerate the nuisance of the private bus services due to inadequate services provided by the SLTB. Therefore, the need of the hour is to improve the SLTB services by investing more money and solving the issues in the public transport sector", they added.

Shashi Welgama the newly appointed Chairman of the Sri Lanka Transport Board explaining the present situation of the SLTB said that though there are about 7,000 time slots they have only 5,000 buses to run these services.

"To run these service we have to have 7000 plus buses. At present we are facing a shortage of drivers and conductors. Per day about 250 to 300 buses do not run due to the shortage of crew", he added.

As a remedy to the shortage of buses, the Transport Ministry is now having discussions to get 2,000 new buses under Indian Line of credit."But these discussions are still at the initial level", he added.

He also pointed out that many of the bus depots are running at a loss as they have to run on the uneconomical routes and the Treasury has to fund these runs.

"They are running early morning and late evening buses during which the private buses are not running. Even if there are 10 to 12 passengers we have to provide the service.

There are some routes that are running inside villages where they carry only five to ten people. But we have to give the service", he added.

He also pointed out that the operational cost of the SLTB buses are also very high.

"More than 50 per cent of our revenue is spent on diesel. Then we have to spent a lot on other lubricants, spare parts, tyres and batteries", he added.

"The most difficult area is to settle the salaries of the workers on time. We are facing problems as the revenue is less than the expenses. The SLTB is over-staffed but there is a shortage of drivers and conductors", he added.

"We need more cooperation from the Treasury to run these services. Without Treasury assistance we can succeed if we are running only on the profitable routes. But as a Government organisation we have to run in the non profitable routes as well because normal private buses do not ply on the non profitable routes", he added.

Concessions

"The Government is giving us concessions for running these services but we have to reorganise the system and put forward a new proposal for the Treasury", he added.

He said for the SLTB to provide an efficient service to the public in an event of a crisis in the nature of the strike launched by the private bus operator on Monday, the SLTB must have at least 40 per cent ratio in the bus transportation sector.

"Minister Kumara Welgama has agreed to give a 40 percent hike for the SLTB and 60 per cent for the private buses. When we achieve this ratio in an event of a crisis like that, SLTB can handle such situations.

During the strike launched by the private bus operators the SLTB had to run even at a loss in the face of the increased diesel prices. "On a day like that people had delays because we had to cover the services of the private buses although we had only 5,000 buses to cover the service run by 20,000 private buses.

There were delays on that day. We worked round the clock and there was two to three hours delays, but we did it. Our people had done a good job", he added.

"If we had 7,000 buses we could have given an efficient service", he added.

Explaining the conditions of the buses idling at bus depots he said the buses the SLTB is now having were bought about five years ago and they are being well maintained and all of them are running now.

Brand

He said the brand of the bus also matters and many of the buses idling at depots are due to non availability of spare parts from that brand.

"It all matters from the brand also. If you have gone for a odd brand those do not run. Sometimes the spare parts are very costly.

The buses we are running now are Indian buses and they are affordable and buses are also matched for our roads because the Indian roads and our roads are in similar conditions. But still we ask these manufacturers to improve the quality of the buses. So that in the long run will be viable", he added.

He said the SLTB can provide a better service as required by the people as the workers in the SLTB are disciplined than the private sector.

"They are well trained at the Driving Training Schools and we conduct workshops for drivers.

For them the driving licence has to be a fairly old licence and they have to work in a SLTB normal route for more than five years and then only will they be given a long distance route", he added.

He said steps have also been taken to minimise wastage and corruption in the SLTB by deploying flying squads and investigative units.

"I took over this organisation only ten days ago. This is a very big organisation and now I am doing a very preliminary study. It will take a few more weeks for me to draw up a plan.

"I think within a year we can do a good thing to increase the efficiency of this organisation to provide a better service to the public", he added.