Transport turmoil

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa this week finally confirmed what many had suspected and scrapped the Light Rail Transit (LRT), a project that had seen the previous regime agree to a $ 1.8 billion Japanese loan in order to complete.

Given Sri Lanka’s already serious debt situation, signing up for expensive light rail systems that would have taken years to implement was a wrong step in the right direction by the last Government, and as such the decision to go in a different direction is arguably the right one.

One alternative is to look into Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) systems. Everywhere around the world, light rail is being put aside for bus transport systems or linked with different transport options to create seamless systems. Sri Lanka, too, was on this journey for several years with local transport experts backing BRT systems before the last Government decided on light rail despite the delay and debt it would incur.

Given that Colombo is a compact city, a BRT system, provided it is run efficiently, could not only reduce traffic within the city but also link suburbs to reduce pollution and increase movement. It would also encourage the public to leave their cars at home because the BRT system would not be limited to a track system.

Sri Lanka’s BRT ambitions are based on a detailed study done by JICA and reviewed by the University of Moratuwa. The much-hailed document calculates a BRT system can be implemented with an investment of Rs. 173 billion over five years. Set against the fact that the Government already spends an estimated Rs. 200 million a year on building and maintaining highways, BRT would be faster off the ground, implemented widely, and would encourage more people to use public transport, the project made eminent sense. But it received little traction from the Megapolis Authority, which preferred light railway.

With the recent lane discipline experiment, and with it moves to further empower traffic police, it’s clear that the President is taking the issue of traffic in the country seriously. Among the most significant measures discussed in recent times has been proposal to combine both the State and private bus services into one time table. 

This step has been recommended multiple times, including by the National Transport Commission (NTC), but failed in its implementation as public transport is a subject that is devolved to Provincial Councils and cannot be implemented by the Transport Ministry. 

It remains to be seen if the President can find a way to overcome this hurdle. One obvious solution would be to restructure the Ministry of Transport in such a way that all public transport services are under the jurisdiction of the ministry. This would enable an improvement in bus scheduling, while also allowing for the implementation of electronic boards keeping passengers updated on bus timings and its ETA.

The Bus Priority Lanes (BPLs) must also be enforced strictly, both to keep buses within those lanes and private vehicles out of them.

Finally, and this is a much longer term solution, the administering of driving licences needs to be much stricter, with individuals needing to be properly trained and taught in road rules. Drivers need to be shown the benefits of adhering to the road rules as well, but most importantly the rules themselves must be enforced rigorously.