Public transport: 34 feeder routes to connect users to MBS

LTC official admits information on feeder routes should have been made public earlier.

LAHORE:

Twenty-six bus routes and eight van routes will serve as feeder routes for the Metro Bus Service, which is to be inaugurated on Sunday (February 10), said Lahore Transport Company officials. The routes will be operational within a few days of the launch.

CEO Haider Latif told The Express Tribune that these routes included some which had been “realigned”, meaning they were existing bus routes which had been altered slightly to accommodate transporters and avoid overlaps. He predicted that three of these realigned routes would have to be closed down for lack of use.

Some brand new routes would also be started for potential MBS users who don’t live close to the 27-km track. Eight of the feeder routes are on narrow roads which can’t take buses, so low occupancy vehicles (LOVs) – or vans – will be operated on these routes.

Latif admitted that the company should have made the information on feeder routes for the MBS public sooner, since it was just two days away from inauguration.

All 34 routes would operate with regular fares, LTC officials said, emphasising that they would not be free for the first four weeks, like the MBS.

LTC Chairman Khawaja Ahmad Hassaan said that details of feeder routes would be put up at each station. New routes would be created and old ones closed down depending on need.

He said that good quality vans would be operated on the LOV routes. “These routes are currently mainly served by Qing Qi rickshaws. The LOVs will replace the rickshaws, which will still be able to cover the streets within neighbourhoods to take people to the feeder routes,” Hassaan said.

The LTC chairman said that he expected between 20,000 and 40,000 people a day to use the MBS service in its early stages. He said that the 45 articulated buses brought in for the MBS could carry 112,000 people per day, but was confident that the use of the MBS would quickly exceed that capacity. Istanbul built a 42-km bus track and expected it would be used by up to 300,000 people a day, he said. It is now being used by 750,00 a day.

The LTC chairman recently visited Istanbul and invited various dignitaries to the inauguration ceremony.

B1 – RA Bazaar to Sanda (feeds MBS at Secretariat)

B2 – General Bus Stand to Maraka (feeding point at MAO College)

B5 – City Railway Station to Defence (Qurtaba Chowk)

B10 – City Railway Station to NFC Hosing Scheme (Qurtaba Chowk)

B11 – City Railway Station to Green Town (MAO College, Jain Mandir)

B12 – City Railway Station to Youhanabad (Walton)

B14 – RA Bazaar to Bagrian (Walton)

B16 – General Bus Stand to Social Welfare Society (Secretariat, MAO College, Kalma Chowk)

B19 – Old Ravi Bridge to Chungi Amr Sidhu (Kalma Chowk, Niazi Chowk)

B20 – Old Ravi Bridge to Bagrian (Sanda, Ichhra)

B21 – City Railway Station to Qila Sattar Shah (Shahdara, Azadi Chowk)

B22 – Jallo Mor to Thokar Niaz Beg (Ferozepur Road-Canal Bank Road)

B23 – RA Bazaar to Thokar Niaz Beg (Chungi Amr Sidhu)

B26 – Chungi Wagha to Chungi Amr Sidhu (Walton)

B28 – Allama Iqbal Aiport to Model Town Link Road (Kalma Chowk)

B33 – City Railway Station to Township (Ichhra, Shama, Wahdat Road)

B36 – Daroghawala to Chungi Amr Sidhu (Chungi Amr Sidhu, Ghazi Road)

B 37/49A (Counts as two routes)   Railway Station to Muridke (Azadi Chowk, Shahdra)

B43 – City Railway Station to Pepsi Cola Factory (Qurtaba Chowk)

B44 – Old Ravi Bridge to Daroghawala (Niazi Chowk)

B49 – City Railway Station to Kamoke (Azadi Chowk, Shahdra)

B51 – Gajju Mata to Kasur (Gajju Mata, Kalma Chowk)

B53 – City Railway Station to Sheikhupura (Azadi Chowk, Shahdra)

B54 – City Railway Station to EME Society (Kalma Chowk)

B55 – City Railway Station to Sabzazar (MAO)

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2013.