Beyond the chaos of urban public transport
Over the past few days, the chaotic scenes of frustration and desperation on the faces of commuters in Accra and Kumasi as they struggled to get to and from work or school have once again highlighted a major faultline in our urban transport system, which keeps resurfacing now and then.
When a rickety trotro eventually cranks into view in these chaotic times, two new problems emerge - a ‘survival of the fittest’ mad dash to find a seat, leading to a bottleneck at the vehicle door, and a ‘tot-tot’ system that drivers and their mates have devised solely to fleece weary passengers in their most vulnerable state.
Suddenly, they are the imperial kings and their crown princes oozing with power, strutting around with miserable commuters at their mercy.
Under the ‘tot-tot’ system, the tro tro will do short legs along, say the Circle to Amasaman route, disgorging passengers at the end of one leg, only to announce another destination further down the stretch, which attracts a new round of fares.
The Amasaman passenger thus ends up paying more than the standard fare he or she would have paid for an uninterrupted trip to the final destination. But he or she has no choice because of a coordinated ploy by the trotros during rush hour.
Trotro menace
The nature of urban public transport in this country, dominated by individually-owned trotro buses, is clearly unsuited for a modern city with its particular dynamics and needs.
In the 21st century, this fragmented approach is akin to cultivating a large tract of land by employing many individuals armed with cutlasses and hoes and expecting productivity to soar.
The average trotro is dirty, stuffy, cramped, environmentally unfriendly and rickety.
Someone commented the other day that many of them are simply an amalgamation of spare parts trudging along.
Woe betide you if you are riding on the trotro, and it begins to rain.
While in other parts of the world people leave their cars at home and take public buses to work, out here, people cannot wait to acquire their own vehicles so they can break free from trotro misery - hopefully forever.
To make matters worse, it appears that once an ordinarily sane driver eases himself (I have yet to see a female trotro driver) into the driving seat, he seems possessed and conditioned to drive most aggressively and recklessly on our streets, as if it is one of the key requirements for driving these contraptions.
While politicians generally run scared of trotro drivers and their unions because of the power they wield to bring the cities to a standstill, together with their dire political/electoral consequences, the police actually tend to relish taking them on for all manner of reasons.
After all, they are a softer touch than the big, connected, powerful men and women cruising around in their SUVs and breaking traffic regulations by heart.
Hysteria galore, inefficient state sector
In the wake of the latest round of chaos on the streets of Accra and Kumasi, the public conversation has drawn in the ‘Ayalolo’ BRT system, dedicated bus lanes, Metro Mass Transport and several other projects and initiatives of the past that found elegant expression in consultants’ reports and flowery speeches by politicians to wild acclaim, only to disappear into the mists of time to gather dust.
There have been promises of more buses to be brought in, and National Security operatives have also stormed bus terminals to confront drivers and their mates charging illegal fees, leading to some scuffles in instances.
As usual, apparatchiks on both sides of the political divide have been shouting themselves hoarse over which party did more in government to improve public transport in Accra in particular.
If I had my way, I would rather have trotros off our streets because they simply are not fit for purpose in this day and age, particularly with their ability to hold helpless citizens to ransom for all manner of reasons, affecting national productivity.
But in the same breath, I am sceptical about the state running a bus transport business (or any other business for that matter) for the simple reason that most of the time the state is poor at these things.
The defunct Ghana Railways Corporation and Ghana Airways Ltd accentuate this point in the rail and aviation transport sectors, respectively. On the road, the STC has had a rather chequered history and struggles to compete with private sector operators on inter-city routes.
Over the decades, going back as far as the days of the Omnibus Service Authority in the 1970s, through the various initiatives of recent times, issues such as paucity of political will, political interference, cronyism, procurement overload, poor maintenance culture leading to frequent vehicle breakdowns, mismanagement, corruption and a host of challenges have plagued the state bus sector.
On short-term resolutions such as bringing in more buses or National Security presence at terminals, I am afraid these are exactly what they are - short-term relief - and do not go to the root of what is really needed if we are serious about overhauling the landscape of urban public transport.
Franchising bus routes
Beyond the current atomised urban transport scene defined by the trotro and an inefficient state-run system, what we need is a radical, long-term approach to the problem that will see trotros either completely phased out or the very least, confined to the peripherals of our cities, feeding into their main arteries.
In my view, this is where the idea of franchising comes in, as it pertains in other countries.
Under the franchising model, the state would, for instance, offer the various major routes in and out of Accra’s Central Business District (Kasoa, Adenta, Dawhenya, Amasaman, etc.) to various private bus companies to run on renewable contracts, subject to various qualifying criteria on safety, comfort, fleet size, pricing and other enforceable standards, with fines and other penalties for breach.
Alternatively, more than one bus company could run the same route, offering commuters a choice and driving competition in the process, which will ultimately improve standards and make the services more attractive. Established companies such as OA, VIP and others could well be interested in this venture, given their longevity and experience in the intercity transport business.
The state can then restrict itself to the provision of infrastructure such as bus terminals and bus stops, as well as electronic surveillance of dedicated bus lanes and enforcement of punitive measures for breach, along with general regulatory oversight.
This is similar to the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority maintaining aviation facilities for private airlines to operate various air routes in the country.
Over time, the bus franchise model can be expanded within Accra and exported to other large cities.
An urban light rail system could also operate along the same model.
Of course, the axe of trotro drivers will be gored in all this, but the greater good is paramount, and both consultations and the political will to face them down will be key.
This is a long-term issue, but as the Chinese say, ‘a thousand-mile journey begins with one step’.
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