Comments on: The Bus Fuss

By: indi.ca » The First Modern Commuter Bus

indi.ca » The First Modern Commuter Bus — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:19:57 +0000

[...] fairly ordinary stuff, but it isn’t. I’ve talked about the need for new buses and the resistance from some entrenched interests before. This is an example of something actually [...]

By: kp

kp — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:18:06 +0000

the thing about the parked buses- its this devil-may-care attitude of everyone involved in the system. The most sensible thing to do during off-peak hours is to divert the buses to routes which need more, distribute the resources around the area as needed. Thin is, no one cares, and i doubt there’re people in the government that can handle the logistics involved. On top of that, the private buses will just go into a strike.

By: kp

kp — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:15:47 +0000

yeah, i’d like to get down at my house, not at CID/TID HQ :P

By: shammi

shammi — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 04:54:10 +0000

Couldn’t they use the buses to provide a decent regular bus service to rural areas, where people would otherwise have to walk for miles to get to the nearest school, hospital or market? They’d have to maintain at least one motorable road, of course. The revenue wouldn’t be great, but the benefits to the community would be many.

I would have thought that there already was in existence at least one committee report with recommendations regarding the issues facing universities. Not so?

By: Rohan Samarajiva

Rohan Samarajiva — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:34:04 +0000

Just simply adding 3000 buses to a dysfunctional system will not do any good. It is necessary to fix the system (e.g., get a reasonable fare structure; ensure time tables are respected) before (or at least at the same time as ) new buses are brought in.

If the current buses are no good you need a rational procedure for retiring them. In many cases, the bus is the principal assets of the owner (most private operators have 1-5 buses). You can’t suddenly change the rules and expropriate his investment.

I hate to open another can of worms, but I will. Adding new buses to the present dysfunctional system is not different to giving all university teachers an across-the-board pay raise without fixing at least some parts of the dysfunctional university system.

By: tastyjujubes

tastyjujubes — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:37:58 +0000

Maybe Gota should be given the responsibility of looking after the buses?

By: indi

indi — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:45:02 +0000

Yeah, I’m on the Dehiwala bus now. This thing is falling apart, from the loud and sclerotic engine to the torn upholstery. It actually looks like there was a fire in here. I can’t even tell what color things used to be. We need new buses.

By: indi

indi — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:22:58 +0000

But the old buses really suck. They spew fumes, they’re quite uncomfortable, and many are just a metal shell with perfunctory seats. I caught one of the new buses once and it was amazing. That’s the type of transport even middle-class people could prefer over cars, if there was just more of it.

By: Silva

Silva — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:54:42 +0000

Excuse me, but was it you who said you love loved going in Colombo buses enjoying the view and all??? You actually take the bus to work, right??? So, now you are saying it ''sucks''. So, what is it man??? You go in the bus knowing that it sucks???? Or you just found that out yesterday???? Are you trying to prove something that we are not aware of???? Are you practicing some weird form of simple living???

By: Lankan Thinker

Lankan Thinker — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:25:41 +0000

I came across a quote from the mayor of Bogota on the TEDxGateway Facebook page. It said: “A developed country is not one where poor people have cars, but one where the rich take public transport”. How’s that for an aspiration!

By: Rohan Samarajiva

Rohan Samarajiva — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 10:50:33 +0000

Everyone likes to import buses. I have my theories on why.

But just take a look along the roads at any offpeak time. There are enormous numbers of parked buses. Buses, buses everywhere; but not one to take me when I want to where I want, is the short explanation of bus sector in LK.

The private operators have a point. There is an over supply of buses in Sri Lanka. Without rationalizaton, centered on actually enforced time tables, the sector cannot be fixed. 3000 new buses will definitely not help.