Public transport: Smart cards for use in all buses planned

Single-ride tokens to be phased out on Metro Bus Service.


Rameez Khan November 12, 2013
Single-ride tokens to be phased out on Metro Bus Service.

LAHORE:


The Lahore Transport Company (LTC) is to install smart card readers in all buses so commuters can use public transport all over the city on the same cards.


Travellers on the Metro Bus Service (MBS) already have the option of buying a smart card, costing Rs133, for multiple journeys. The LTC and the Punjab Metro Bus Authority (PMBA) are considering whether to introduce a new smart card for all buses, or just allow the Metro Bus cards to be used on other buses.

The LTC is currently doing a study on the viability of introducing card readers in all buses. The first step would be to install readers in 394 new buses in operation in the city, most of them on MBS feeder routes or routes feeding the feeder routes.



PMBA officials said that once the smart cards are in use all over the city, they would phase out the issuance of tokens for the MBS.

The tokens are currently issued at Rs20 each for single journeys.

The officials said that the aim with introducing the card readers was to allow commuters to travel on any bus in Lahore on the same card.

They were considering whether the smart cards currently in use on the MBS were fit for this purpose, or whether they would have to introduce new ones.

They conceded that taking tokens out of the system would make life difficult for people who wished only to make a single journey on the MBS, but added: “It has to be done.”

LTC CEO Khawaja Haider Latif said that the card readers would first be installed in high-occupancy vehicles and later on low-occupancy vehicles, including coaches. He said that the company would publish an advert in a few months inviting bids from companies to supply and install the card reading machines.

Latif said that the idea of putting e-ticketing devices which print tickets on each bus had been tested in June. It had not been successful and the idea had been dropped, he said.

He added that the LTC would start a study in a few weeks on the use of Qing Qi and motorcycle rickshaws in the city to ascertain the total number of passenger rides they provided each day. The aim is to find out how the rickshaws could be replaced, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2013.

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