Public Transport Reforms: Passes and Direct payment collection on Public busses

The public transportation system in the city of Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, is in dire need of revolutionary reforms to bring it up to par with modern standards found throughout the world. It is not an easy task and will take time, but it is the investment of good ideas and execution of those ideas that will eventually renew the whole system.

Starting off with the payment collection, which is outright the most important aspect because if there is not enough revenue pouring into the system, public transportation will not be able to improve.

Like many countries, payment collection is not done through conductors, which are be found normally on trains but not on public busses. Instead, there are electronic machines that resemble an ATM, which accept payment based on the distance that needs to be travelled or on a daily basis.

Introducing passes, whether short-term or long-term, will not only stop corruption by bus conductors, who at the moment charge whatever they like and create disturbance amongst the people, but will also allow revenue to be properly collected and recorded, along with enabling the masses to purchase tickets depending on their needs and wants like year-long, week-long or even day-long passes.

Inside busses, the passengers who wish to pay at the moment instead of buying passes, there should be a collecting box which stores the payment and is usually located near the entry of the bus sitting by the driver.

This can also be electronic or could be counted by the driver whenever he/she makes a stop to collect bystanders.

Also, fixed rates should be decided and put up in all public transportation busses and must be made mandatory by the concerned government to allow passengers to know what and how much is needed to be paid depending on the distance they wish to go.

Currently, conductors on the busses along with drivers collect much more than needed and keep the extra to themselves, which results in corruption and deteriorates the image of the system itself.

It can easily be observed that many people would desire using public transport if it was reformed in the above mentioned ways and since making the collection method better is only one aspect of the many needed reforms, taking this as a first step will sooner or later change it.

With more and more people beginning to use public transport after the proper reforms are made, the heavy flow of traffic on the streets will ease and result in not only lessened car population on the already crowded roads but will become a much greener and advantageous option to travel.

Posted by Syed Hassan Bokhari on Oct 17 2011. Filed under National, Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry