- Passengers air woes of lengthy queues/boarding times
- Pvt. bus owners/drivers bemoan less commuters midst high recovery costs & less drivers/conductors owing to difficulty finding food/sanitation facilities
- SLTB depots note unprecedented crowds on unexpected days
Although the transport sector authorities stated that bus and train services have been expanded for the people who are working in the suburbs including Colombo to travel to their hometowns to celebrate the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, the people were seen accusing the authorities, alleging that the number of buses deployed was not sufficient.
It is somewhat difficult to prevent these situations based on anticipation, but several parties related to the transport sector have pointed out that if it were not for the long delays in certain changes that should take place in the transport sector, such situations could have been prevented to some extent.
On 11 and 12 April, the television media also broadcast how a large crowd gathered at both the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) and private bus stations in Colombo. Passengers were alleging that they had to wait for a bus from morning to evening, blaming the Government as well as the bus owners. The Ministry of Transport, the SLTB, the National Transport Commission (NTC) and other related agencies had stated that the number of buses in operation had been increased, and that more buses had been added to the fleet in view of the festive season, but the people were lamenting that they had to stand in very long queues and wait for hours.
Duleepa Madusanka, who is employed in the Kelaniya area, had come to the Bastian Mawatha Bus Station in Colombo to go to his home in Akuressa. He said that he had had to wait at the bus station for more than seven hours to board a bus. “I went to the bus station at around 10 a.m., but I was able to board a bus only at around 6 p.m. I can bear to wait at the bus station for that long, but there were some people carrying children and pregnant women too. They got priority in boarding the buses, but they also had to wait for hours at the bus stand,” he said.
Compared to the situation in previous years, he said that a large number of people had gathered in Colombo to go to their hometowns, and added that more buses had been deployed on only a few routes.
Speaking to The Daily Morning, Chaminda Priyadarshana, who works as a private bus driver, said that since the special private buses deployed for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year charged half as much as the usual fare, many passengers had a tendency to travel in the buses belonging to the SLTB. “In addition to the regular buses running on the road, special private buses are deployed for the festive season, but it is a loss for the bus owners to charge only the usual fare from the passengers travelling on such buses. The reason is that these buses running from Colombo to remote areas have to return to Colombo with no passengers aboard. The bus owners have to cover that cost. However, the passengers are quite reluctant to travel on these buses, except in the case of an absolute necessity, as they charge extra fares,” he said.
When contacted, the Lanka Private Bus Owners' Association (LPBOA) President Gemunu Wijeratne said that there was a bit of a problematic situation as the people came to Colombo to go to the villages on days which were not the planned days. “It is on 12 April that people go to their hometowns in other years, but, this year, many people came to Colombo on 11 April. Therefore, the number of buses that were deployed on 11 April may not have been enough in some places. Such situations cannot be prevented. That is because none of us can anticipate that this many people would come to travel on the buses running on this particular route,” he said.
Another person who owns several buses running from Colombo to Kandy said that the drivers and conductors of buses running on special occasions such as the Sinhala and Tamil New Year not being able to procure the basic needs such as food and sanitary facilities is also a problem that should be paid attention to by the authorities. “Another reason why it is difficult to run buses during the festive season is the lack of drivers and conductors. Usually, all the restaurants and other shops are closed for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. Therefore, there is no place for the bus drivers and conductors to buy food. They cannot even find a toilet to use. That is why many people don’t like to work on these days. Usually, one sees a driver driving a bus and the conductor collecting the bus fare, but, we have to think about a lot more than that when operating buses.”
Wijeratne further said that there are a number of changes that need to be made in the transport sector, and related the same to be the foundation of the country's development. Due to the Ministry of Transport and the other relevant institutions following a dormant policy, he said that no change has been made thus far. He added that although they have forwarded a number of proposals to the relevant institutions, they have not yielded any results, noting that if those proposals were implemented, certain inconveniences that the people have to face could be prevented to some extent.
“We have been saying for a long time to provide facilities for issuing electronic tickets instead of charging bus fares by employing a conductor. We have also shown how to do it, but, so far, our proposals have not been implemented. If that proposal was implemented, all we need to operate buses is a driver. We would not have had to look for conductors who like to work during the festive season,” he said.
He also said that nearly 5,000 passenger transport buses have been taken out of service since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and added that it has also hindered passenger transport activities. “During the lockdown of the country when the Covid-19 pandemic spread, buses did not operate. Therefore, many drivers and conductors turned to other jobs. Bus owners gave their buses for corporate transport activities instead of passenger transport. Therefore, almost 5,000 buses that used to transport passengers are not running at the moment, so it is difficult to deploy more buses for special occasions of this sort.”
In this situation, Wijeratne said that although there have been multiple requests to remove the ban imposed on the import of vehicles, no positive response has been provided by the authorities. “Usually, more than 500 buses a year are taken out of operation as scrap material. To fill that gap, buses need to be imported, but, due to the current ban, there is no opportunity for that. Even if the relevant restrictions are removed, many bus owners will find it difficult to purchase buses anew. They even find it difficult to maintain buses that they already have. The reason for this is that the price of everything, such as spare parts, has gone up.”
When contacted by The Daily Morning, an official of the SLTB Depot in Colombo said that compared to other years, a large number of people came to Colombo to go to their hometowns. He said that there was congestion at the bus station on 11 April due to the unexpected arrival of the passengers, but that the situation was resolved by 12 April. “Even on some long weekends, there are times when this kind of congestion is seen. Therefore, it is not surprising that this happened during a festive season. It was somehow managed and the passengers were provided with the necessary facilities,” he explained.
People were complaining that the number of buses deployed was insufficient, but no such complaints were reported about the number of regular and special trains deployed by the Railways Department this year. An official of the Department, when contacted, said that in addition to the regular train schedules, about 40 special train schedules had been introduced for those who travelled for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. “On 11 April, the operation of trains was delayed due to a derailment on the Coastal Railway Line, but apart from that, there was no other problem with the train operation.”
The Ministry of Transport and Highways and the NTC were not available for comment.
A press release dated Monday (15), issued by the Transport and Highways Ministry stated that as per its instructions, the NTC together with the SLTB has implemented a special bus operation plan for passengers returning to Colombo from 12 noon on 14 April. It further read that the relevant agencies have been instructed to implement the programme by using buses under the purview of inter-Provincial or Provincial transport authorities by reducing or increasing the gap between the running time of two buses according to the passenger demand. Under that programme, special highway bus services were operated from Ambalangoda, Ampara, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Chilaw, Embilipitiya, Kaduruwela, Hatton, Nuwara Eliya, Welimada, Kandy, Kurunegala and Monaragala to Colombo. In addition, special bus services operated on the expressways from Matara, Galle, Tangalle, Embilipitiya, Elpitiya, and Ambalangoda to Colombo. Several special trains have also been introduced from the Badulla, Galle, Matara, and Beliatta Railway Stations to Colombo Fort. The Ministry requested the passengers to reach the bus or railway stations at the earliest possible time since there will be more people travelling to Colombo from yesterday (16) to today.