Agony Without Ecstasy On The Long-Distance Buses

By Victor Karunairajan, THE SUNDAY LEADER

Nearly all the buses appear to be operated with a passenger unfriendly ‘Fleece them’ motive

Colombo-Jaffna Express Buses Are Veritable Death Traps Plying between Colombo and Jaffna every night each way are about 50 buses and many more during the weekends. Nearly all of them, it appears, are operated with a passenger unfriendly ‘Fleece them’ motive. There have been some horrendous accidents already, yet the public have not reacted. This is no que sera sera business; it is a matter of life and death. Some buses, but too few to canvas favourable consideration, have plus points The bus operators call them AC Luxury, Non-AC Semi-luxury and Ordinary. And none have toilets on board and neither are there any along the way except for a badly maintained one at the temple stop at Murugandy.  You pay Rs. 10 for its use; a few weeks ago it was Rs. 5 and the chaps working there can be quite insulting.

These toilets stink to the very gates of hell. Passengers are advised to have exact change so they can avoid infection from handling the change they receive from the dirty hands of the keepers or minders of the temple toilets. Some buses ignore that stop. It is incumbent on the temple authorities to ensure decent standards in the premises including the provision of  waste bins. Is this too much to ask?

There are good places for the long-distance buses to stop along this highway with decent restaurants and good toilets at Vavuniya, Medawachiya, Anuradhapura and Puttalam – all key stations. But bus operators seem to avoid them and prefer some drab, dowdy, dirty eating places and the surrounding open unlit areas for privy purposes with their attendant dangers including being bitten by snakes hiding in the bushes. But who  cares! Public consciousness is a nil factor knitted firmly into our lifestyles and the fleecers, considered smart guys, prosper. Even worse, there are people who will criticise this writer for raising this hell.

Administratively, far too often passengers are double-booked with too many booking agents handling this operation on commission,  and the departure of each bus handled by  many on-the-ground and on-the-buses conductors can be quite unpleasant. They would even insist on having your pre-booked seat changed to oblige a friend or a good-looking lass.

They are rude in their language, crude in their behaviour and at times, they could be brutal too in order to have their way as against the interests of the passengers. Evidently it gives them a thrill to wield power and authority. The half to one hour boarding period especially in Jaffna is far too long and noisy with rough handling methods freely used. Friendliness and politeness are a far cry.

The other day a conductor kept opening and closing the door to let in bursts of fresh air. He was trying to save fuel by turning off the AC for which each passenger would have paid an extra Rs. 400. Noise pollution that is blasted from the beginning to the very end and violent Tamils films are hellish hallmarks of this overnight service. Over the night it is agony without the ecstasy of comfortable travel.

It seems the driver needs that noise to keep awake.

There are no belt provisions and this means the bus must cruise at a steady comfortable speed avoiding unacceptable accelerator activity and unnecessary overtaking. This discipline hardly exists.  Most of the  buses are driven from beginning to end only by one driver and that could be about twelve hours or even more. This must be illegal in any part of the world. Sometimes a tired driver unable to keep his eyes open, stops the bus somewhere, anywhere, and gets off, walks around the bus a few times and then continues driving. With about forty lives aboard; this is totally unacceptable.

Drivers are also known to use the mobile phone while at the wheel. If a passenger raises objection he can expect a mouthful of indiscernible gibberish as a reaction. The AC and Non-AC buses have been constructed well, coach-style and aimed at comfort by the Indian manufacturers. They are good as any in Europe and North America. They need to be maintained well and the operators will do well to ensure passenger comfort is primary.

There should be two drivers with preferably a five-hour maximum for each. Two stops should  be ensured on the way and they have to be in a town with proper restaurant and toilet facilities. This must be a condition for route permits. Every passenger should know beforehand what the stops on the way are and these ideally, should be displayed in the bus. The stops that these buses make now also have the danger of passengers being overrun by fast-going vehicles on the highway. One cannot stop a bus along the highway to let sleepy passengers de-board at night.

An AC bus must have air-conditioned service from beginning to the end, cool enough to be comfortable. A conductor who cannot be polite and friendly and cannot use pleasant language should not be on board for the journey. Commanding the passengers to move forward while the bus is moving to facilitate quick de-boarding is unacceptable. Most passengers at this time are half asleep. Munnuku va (come forward) and irangu (get down) are commands typical of those who are bereft of good manners and  proper etiquette    When the buses take off from a point in Colombo they should not crawl to pick up passengers along the way; they could have one brief stop at Kotahena, possibly. The same applies to Jaffna too. When there is a further terminus other than Jaffna, the departure time should be such that the bus is ready to leave within minutes of arriving at the departure point in Jaffna. An express bus cannot crawl to serve the greed of the bus operators.

It is also feared that some buses operate without the necessary route permits. In Colombo a shuttle van service operates to take passengers to the point the express bus leaves other than the Ramakrishna Mission terminus at Wellawatte. This custom is evidently possible with corruptible considerations involving the traffic police. Most operators of this overnight service will do well to learn from the very few who operate decent services and take good care of their passengers. It is also important for the state to operate luxury overnight services to ensure that the private operators provide good service.

What we need are proper bus station facilities with parking bays and strict time-table designated arrivals and departures. It is also not desirable for buses leaving together convoy-style. On the Colombo-Jaffna highway, Medawachchiya could be an ideal point for a state of the art bus station linking Jaffna, Colombo, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Mannar, Kandy and several other towns.

How we long for the railway to be operational soon!