Trouble with buses

All is not well with two bus projects in Rawalpindi-Islamabad. One has yet to get off the ground at all and the other is falling considerably short of its ridership targets. There was much jubilation when the Metro bus service opened for business in 2015 and it has continued to ply between the twin cities since, mostly without complaint. Perhaps so, but not enough people are using the service even though 100,000 are using it daily, this is below the projected number of 150,000. Considering there is a considerable subsidy being paid daily to the company operating the service — Rs325 per km — by the Punjab Mass Transit Authority there are only 45 buses out of 100 operating, the rest being parked up. With the subsidy totalling Rs200 million annually there is rising concern about the inaccurate projections that underpinned the project.

The other project that is not operational and back-burnered is the Islamabad Bus Service (IBS) that was aimed at easing the woes of the commuter in the capital city on six routes identified by the United Nations Development Programme under the sustainable urban transport programme. The proposal was ambitious and has run into the sand, losing political support and failing to generate sufficient commercial interest. In part the service was to utilise electric buses which considering the difficulty that is attached to providing a reliable and constant supply of power 24/7 might be considered wildly optimistic.

Although the two services are not directly connected, they are together in the big picture of mass transit for an expanding population. The eventual opening of the new airport may soak up some of the shortfall for the Metro bus service but there seems no such possibility for the IBS and Islamabad, as with other cities, is without adequate public transport. The signal-free corridor on the Islamabad Expressway is still far from complete and congestion in the city, supposedly eased by the Metro service, is instead increasing. There is a chronic lack of joined up thinking blighting both of these essential services, and solutions distant. Planning? What planning?

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2018.

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