<B>By Mohammed HAMUTH</B>

Friday 14 September 2007. St Julien Village. An elderly citizen lost her leg in a violent bus collision. There was no reaction from the authorities concerned with the subject matter of transport. It seems no lessons were learnt after that accident.

This week, a 17 year old student died after sustaining injuries in another collision involving three buses. The buses apparently collided for the same reasons: speeding, dangerous driving, risky overtaking, racing and competing between each other, in typical ?bus individual? style!

Strangely enough, no one has called for the resignation of the minister responsible for land transport. Even the MSM has not demonstrated in front of Parliament. People may well think that this was an unfortunate accident, but I still insist this is the direct consequence of the inaction of Hon minister Rashid Beebeejaun, who, after three years in office, has failed to reorganize this sector in the interest of rural passengers.

Whenever there is an accident involving ?individual? buses, the causes are more or less the same. People have been taken for a ride for years and private bus operators are still holding passengers at ransom, with the benediction of the government. Private operators have their own rules, they flout the laws, put the lives of passengers in danger, abuse bus stand time, race on narrow village roads, etc. This system no longer responds to the needs of modern Mauritius. It is impossible for hundreds of individually owned buses to provide a cost effective service. No wonder bus fares keep rising, but without any improvement in the level of service.

We have got a fragmented public transport where hundreds of disparate operators will never be able to provide a reliable, efficient and sustainable service, however much subsidies are pumped into it. It is impossible to benefit from economies of scale if each owner runs his bus independently, does his own maintenance, buys his own spare parts, employs his own staff, etc. There will never be a service standard, and quality will always suffer as operators will be continuously competing with each other. Operation costs will always escalate continuously competing with each other and costs will always escalate beyond control, and the public traveller and taxpayer will both be eternally fleeced through frequent fare hike and subsidies to fund this disorganized, poorly managed system that defeats all economic and productivity principles. We have got organizations like the NPCC and NESC, whose roles include advising the government on how to enhance productivity and efficiency, but who fail to notice this white elephant. There is also an environmental hazard as each bus owner is likely to dispose of his used engine oil in his backyard unlike a centralized professional disposal at a bus depot.

Most public complaints hover around non-issuance of tickets, conductors and drivers incorrectly dressed or not displaying identity badges, their rudeness towards passengers, especially the elderly, refusal to embark students and pensioners, speeding to compete with other buses, overloading, being under the influence of alcohol, etc. In a bid to collect more passengers, many buses refuse to leave bus terminus according to official time-tables, then crawl all the way, expecting passengers to crowd at intermediary stops. Passengers may not be aware that buses have to complete a trip within a time frame set by the NTA, failing which, a penalty is imposed whereby they have to wait some four hours before undertaking the next trip. This is the reason why buses are forced to speed to catch up, after having wasted time initially. They exceed speed limit on busy narrow village roads, overtake dangerously on sharp bends, and tend to intimidate other road users. Passengers are not given ample time to get in or out. The general upkeep of most buses is pathetic. Destination indicators are not readable enough. Buses sometimes divert at will and compel passengers to alight or change to another bus mid-way. In short, ?individual? buses make their own rules, and passengers have to agree. Conflicts do arise where certain exasperated passengers complain and it is not uncommon to see violent incidents spark.

After three years in office, the Transport minister has been unable to take appropriate decisions to improve the public transport system. To add insult to injury, the NTA is still allocating new bus licences, thereby adding to the mess. Buses in Mauritius do an average of only 5 journeys per day, compared to 12 in Singapore, 10 in London and 13 in Mumbai. There is definitely an excess of buses on some routes with most buses crowing our bus stations, yet passengers face miseries at bus stops. For decades, bus routes have remained the same, with buses starting from one point and terminating to another, and nothing has been done to accommodate growing number of passengers at intermediary bus stops. Mauritius being a small island, it is so easy to develop a fully integrated and modern system that evolves with time and keep pace with the infrastructural and socio-economic development of Mauritius. Had this author been in the seat of the 1st DPM, the whole public transport system would have been overhauled in less than six months.