First day: Foton suspends buses after Lahori ‘welcome’

Company halts service for five hours after encountering pushy students.

LAHORE: Issues with CNG supply and thuggish passengers plagued the Foton Bus Company on its first day of operations on Thursday, forcing it to suspend the service for several hours.

The bus service, initially introduced on three routes, was supposed to start on Wednesday. But unable to get CNG because of the two weekly gas holidays, the company had to delay the launch till Thursday.

The service started slowly yesterday with few buses plying the routes, as the supply of CNG only resumed early morning. Then in the early afternoon, the buses encountered students of MAO College at closing time.

The students forced the buses to stop and demanded free rides. This is common practice on bus routes that go past colleges, but it was a first for the Chinese management.

They immediately stopped all buses and informed the Lahore Transport Company (LTC). Service resumed around five hours later, by which time all the students were gone.

Meanwhile, several drivers complained that the company had warned them that they would be liable for any damage to the bus while they drive it. They said that this was unfair.

“We know the traffic, roads and commuters of this city,” said one driver. “There could be a strike somewhere and protestors might break the windows. Or a bad driver could hit the bus. Why should I be held responsible for that?”

A Lahore Transport Company official said that LTC staff would ensure that the students do not harass the bus drivers from Friday, but added that the FBC was still learning about the local public transport environment.

“Foton is an international company and all of its management is from China. They are not aware of the conditions in which transport operates in Lahore. This was the main reason they panicked and stopped operations,” said LTC Senior Operations Manager Tanveer Siddique.

He said that the LTC would deploy its enforcement staff at areas where students commonly got on buses to prevent them from harassing buses and drivers. “The enforcement staff will take care so in future no such issue occurs again,” he said.

He said that the LTC was “hopeful” that the management of FBC would not require that drivers pay for any damage to the bus.

At the inauguration ceremony for the bus service on Tuesday, LTC Chairman Khawaja Hassaan told The Tribune that the LTC was negotiating with the federal government for a few CNG stations to remain open on gas holidays (Tuesday and Wednesday) so these buses might continue to run.

Siddique said that for now, the company would have to restrict services on CNG holidays by running fewer buses during off-peak hours. He said the buses had greater capacity than other buses and could run the whole day on one CNG fill-up.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2011.