Private bus passengers suffer endlessly

A famous philosopher once said, “It’s the journey that matters, not the destination.” Coincidentally, there cannot be a better adage to sympathize with the daily plight of passengers travelling through private bus services in the port city, who despite heading towards starkly different destinations, share the mutual suffering of a long, costly and inconvenient bus ride on a regular basis.

Even though, the locals in Karachi had desperately hoped that the introduction of the state-owned Peoples Bus Service would reduce the burden on the private transport sector and would thereby improve its quality of service and reduce its fare rates, the reality is far removed from the commuters expectations, with private transporters refusing to upgrade their operating buses only to hike the fares and extend the duration of the passengers' journeys instead.

Abdul Ghaffar, a daily commuter from Gulshan-e-Hadeed told the Express Tribune that he regularly travels to Saddar on a private bus. “It usually takes two to two and a half hours for me to reach my destination,” complained Ghaffar.

Similarly, Farhan Ahmed, a commuter from the Landhi Quaidabad area, revealed that the distance between Quaidabad and Tower was barely 20 kilometers but still private buses were charging arbitrary fares to passengers.

“Many a times, passengers have entered into a squabble with the conductor but nothing is done about the issue since there is no official list of fixed fares for the buses,” lamented Ahmed.

“I too had complained several times to the bus conductor about the arbitrary fares, but he did not bat an eye,” concurred Zeeshan Ali, a commuter from Malir.

On the other hand, Abdul Wadood Khan, a private transporter, refused to acknowledge the passengers' grievances. “I do not take any extra charges for my bus tickets. Although sometimes, there can be an unwarranted delay in the arrival of the bus, I try my best to take my passengers to their destinations as swiftly as possible,” maintained Khan.

While the unwarranted delays alluded to by Khan might be narrowly tolerable for regular passengers, mothers travelling with fussy babies snuggled in their laps have a much harder time sitting through the relentlessly bumpy rides.

For instance, Arbab, a woman who recently traveled from Tower to Gulshan-e-Hadeed, shared her daughter-in-law’s struggle to pacify her 6-month-old granddaughter during the three-hour long bus ride. “My granddaughter does not take bottle feed. Since the bus was brimming with passengers, her mother could not breastfeed her for three hours and the child kept bawling throughout,” recalled Arbab.

According to sources obtained by the Express Tribune, there are two major reasons behind the deteriorating state of the private transport sector; the shortage of public and private buses and the overcrowding of the Peoples Bus Service.

Firstly, only 300 buses of the Peoples Bus Service, and almost an equal number of buses owned by private entities operate in the city which has a population of over 20 million.

“While the People's Bus Service in Karachi has brought some convenience, there are still insufficient public transportation options. There should be at least 10,000 buses in Karachi,” suggested Abdul Manan Brohi, a Professor at the DJ Science College.

Secondly, the buses run by the People's Bus Service are overcrowded and there's no room to stand, forcing people to travel in old private buses, which demand unreasonable fares for unnecessarily extended routes.

“It is true that extra fares are demanded from passengers by private buses since the People's Bus Service is crammed with passengers. The administration cannot limit the number of passengers on these buses, but we do take action against private transport providers who are charging high fares for their buses,” claimed an official from the Transport and Mass Transit Department, while speaking to The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2024.