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Dedicated bus services need dedicated action plan

28 Jul 2022

The Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association (LPBOA) announced this week that it is planning to start two dedicated bus services from 1 August for school children and people travelling to hospitals, taking into account transport-related difficulties caused by the prevailing fuel shortage. This initiative is to be launched with the support of the Ministry of Education, the Sri Lanka Transport Board, and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, and the relevant authorities have agreed to provide the necessary fuel for this service, according to the LPBOA. Launching these dedicated transport services is a good move, especially due to the fact that schools have been closed for a lengthy period of time, initially due to the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequently due to the fuel shortage. Meanwhile, at a time when even ambulance services are affected by the fuel shortage, paying attention to assisting those travelling to hospitals is also a need of the hour. Even though the plans pertaining to this initiative seem satisfactory, its implementation needs to receive more attention. This project should not face the same fate of many previous plans for fuel management, i.e. only a part of the proposed solution being implemented properly, or ground-level implementation not taking place as per the plan. The recently introduced national fuel pass system is a good example, although it was welcomed by many and can improve. One of the key issues the implementation of the national fuel pass system is encountering is the lack of fuel supply to fuel stations. During the past few days, a large number of vehicle owners could be seen attempting to obtain fuel in accordance with this new system. However, despite the fact that the majority of the vehicle owners adhered to the instructions that they had received, there was no stable or sufficient fuel supply, which resulted in people having to wait for fuel in queues for hours and sometimes for a day or two. In the case of introducing dedicated transport services for schoolchildren and people travelling to hospitals, steps should be taken to ensure that similar incidents do not happen. The authorities have a responsibility to ensure not only an adequate supply of fuel for these services, but also the timely supply of the same. Otherwise, the services will only be a success on paper, not in reality, and those with limited options who are expecting to obtain these services will be inconvenienced further.  At the same time, the authorities have to keep in mind the fact that unlike in the case of usual public transport services, among those who obtain these new transport services are people who are travelling to hospitals and schoolchildren, who may be in situations where it is mandatory to be in hospital or in school at a certain time. Therefore, it is important to ensure that these services operate on time, and do not waste time on roads just to collect more passengers. Since the early stages of the fuel shortage, the Government came up with various measures to manage the available fuel stocks and to prevent the excessive use of fuel. However, many of those have not been successful. Therefore, learning a lesson from previous failures, at a time when the Government is seeking to provide transport services for people to obtain two of the most essential services, health and education, both commuters and transport providers must play their part responsibly. While commuters have a responsibility to support transport providers while understanding the limited nature of the transport services, providers should not make this an opportunity to hoard the fuel intended for use in providing these services. Most importantly, the Government should not only facilitate, but also maintain and promote these services among the people. If people receive a satisfactory service through this initiative, these can be long-term services that ultimately contribute to the target of making public transport services popular.


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