Straphangers United

Apparently, Chennai’s Metropolitan Transport Corporation has decided that its overpriced, underutilised fleet of Volvo buses can be allowed to rust away, so that the tax-payer can be billed for the next set of “super luxury” buses.

Take a look at this one, operating on Anna Salai (Mount Road).

Quite obviously, it is quickly descending into a rusty pit. What a shame!

MTC's minuscule Volvo fleet is rapidly sliding into neglect and disrepair

Try getting into Bangalore from Chennai by bus after 9 p.m. and you may be fleeced in the course of your local travel.
I got in recently from Hosur at 9.15 p.m. and got off at Silk Board point, to travel to Banaswadi Ring Road. The autorickshaw drivers wanted Rs.350 to Rs.400. This is more about twice the fare I had paid by bus to reach Bangalore.
Many other travellers were in a similar plight, and we decided to move to the perpendicular road under the nearby flyover, which has a bus stop with services towards Krishnaraja Puram and tin factory.
A word of caution here. There are scores of call centre transport vehicles that take passengers from this stop towards tin factory at this time of night. I understand that some of them are operated with the sole purpose of money-snatching. The drivers often keep some of their people in the vehicle, and threaten the passenger at knife-point to hand over cash and valuables. So it is better to keep off these vehicles.
KSRTC, the government bus operator has a deluxe service from this bus stop to tin factory at about 10.30 p.m. at an 18-rupee fare. This is a good option, because it takes one to a more connected point, and where autorickshaws are more reasonable.
The KSRTC should actually operate services between the Silk Board-Madiwala bus stops and key locations of the city, say, at half hour intervals, from 9 p.m. to midnight. These could be deluxe services for which passengers are willing to pay.

The Times of India today reports that the Tamil Nadu Government is to introduce legislation to create a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority for Chennai.

The UMTA is not a new idea but one that was mooted way back in the first government formed by Ms. Jayalalitha. It has remained in cold storage ever since, with the Central and State transport agencies unwilling to talk across the table. Even now, without sustained pressure from the media and campaigners, mainly commuters, it may remain a non-starter.

It is our considered view that the announcement of the UMTA is, for the present, only to fulfil the requirements stipulated for funding under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, which in turn is derived from the National Urban Transport Policy. None of the other actions of the Tamil Nadu government have been in consonance with objectives of national policies mentioned above.

To bring about the kind of easy travel that the Times has portrayed today (and which is normal for professionally run cities), some measures do not even have to wait for the UMTA.

Top among these is the availability of Travel As You Please passes issued by MTC. These are not sold on a cyclical basis — that is, on any day of the week, for the next 30 days. Instead, MTC expects passengers to go to selected depots between the first and 15th, to get a pass. There is also no information available in the public domain about the pass options from MTC. This is unfriendly to the commuter and goes against the stated objective of NUTP. It is also uniquely inefficient from any professional management perspective. Lastly, the railways do what is proper right here in Chennai — you can buy a pass on any day, for the next 30 days on any of the suburban lines and the MRTS.

Given their recalcitrant stand to integrate operations, fares and provide seamless travel, it is unlikely that the MTC and the Southern Railway will come to an agreement soon. It remains to be seen whether the new agency will be run professionally, since there is no record of such management in the two Dravidian party governments that Tamil Nadu has had so far.

We note with regret that the urban transport sector is used by the DMK and to a lesser degree, the AIADMK, as labour banks to draw upon for political purposes. This does injustice to workers by treating them as mere political entiries with loyalty to politicians, rather than proud members of a professional transport workforce. It has also created an anomalous situation where the transport staff display a hostile attitude to commuters, whose interests are paramount in any such system.

It remains to be seen whether the UMTA, if it is indeed formed and run professionally, will take up these core issues that affect Indian transport in general, and Chennai in particular.

It is a unusual, but Transport Minister K.N.Nehru has flagged off a fleet of autorickshaws that are distinctively coloured, carry markings to indicate that they are “tourist-friendly,” and the drivers even speak some English. But more important, they promise to abide by fare rules, which is something of a wonder in Dravidianland.

The funny part is that Sun News today quoted the Minister as stating that these autorickshaws had given an undertaking that they would ply by meter. This is a Ministerial admission of the DMK Government’s inability to ensure meter-based operations for the 99 per cent of Chennai autorickshaws.

The same government, along with others in various states, that opposes a petrol price hike. But even with controlled petrol price, Mr. Karunanidhi’s government is unable to provide a reliable, rule-based service in Chennai.

We are now told that these autorickshaws alone will run by meter, although that is strange because the problem then is not one of economics, but some extraneous factor.

Could it be that most of the autorickshaw owners are bold enough to defy the law, because they have someone to support them?

Or is the DMK Government subsidising these “tourist-friendly” autorickshaws?

Will Mr. Nehru please enlighten the travelling public of Chennai?

We welcome the editorial in Business Standard on the BRT system under implementation in Delhi. It provides the correct and sound analysis on the strong fundamentals of the public transport initiative, and advocates a culture change for car-loving citizens among Delhiites. The picture tells the story about what the situation in New Delhi is today.

Business Standard says in its editorial “Get BRT right“,

“Since Indian cities are exploding with poor people coming in from the countryside to earn more, an efficient public transport system has to come first. Those better off will want and should be free to own a car, but what is not practical is for most people to drive a car to work every day. Very few do so in Mumbai, London or New York. Delhi’s middle class should learn to think differently, and the BRT has to be made to work properly. “

The message to the middle class is particularly relevant and is universally applicable in Indian cities. We support this view wholeheartedly and commend it to Chennaiites. We also recommend this video of the Transmilenio BRT system in Bogota, Colombia.

 Transportation expert and sustainability (SUSTRAN) campaigner Paul Barter (whom the editor of this blog met in Kuala Lumpur several years ago in the company of researcher Dr. Yeoh Seng Guan) has this very relevant post on the Delhi BRT.

The City Pulse feature in The Hindu provides an amusing assemblage of views about traffic from the high personages in whose hands our free movement and safety on city roads rests.

Smart city development is definitely not the message that emanates from comments made by M.R.Mohan, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority’s Member-Secretary. “As the city centre becomes congested, people need to move out towards the suburbs. This would require the complementary facility of easy transport into the city from the suburbs,” he is quoted as saying.

Mr. Mohan’s comments are a direct encouragement to sprawl, and go against the grain of smart city development completely. Density of development, access to services and facilities in the immediate, walkable neighbourhood and development of people-friendly common areas is the goal of all enlightened policy. Apparently, not in Chennai. This can come as good news only to the real estate lobby, of whom many are shady politically-connected speculators.

What one wonders is the logic behind the implementation of the Chennai Metro railway. Such a high density transit system presupposes that it will be possible to use central city space optimally, and build vertically. Conversely, there is not much effort to provide safe, efficient transit links to the “suburbs” that Mr. Mohan is talking about. Even the ambitious Metro, if the Tamil Nadu authorities can run it well, does not connect the suburbs, say, like the commuter trains that run from London neighbourhoods into the city’s geographical centre.

Even more interesting is the comment from the Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Mr. Sunil Kumar. Obviously, Mr. Kumar is very well intentioned, but he badly slides into the statistics trap in his comments published by The Hindu.

Through a strange combination of a claimed reduction in fatal accident during non-peak hours, and a staggering amount of fines collected (Rs.10 crores in 2007), Mr. Kumar is making the case that things are going well on traffic enforcement.

The Hindu’s own statistics given earlier state that fatal accidents are on the rise; there were 550 in 2005 to 1,082 in 2006; in 2007, there were 704 fatal accidents in just six months (it is not clear whether these figures are for as many deaths or as many accidents, which means the deaths could be higher).

It is not difficult to see, and we have been pointing this out earlier, that collection of fines is not a proxy for safer roads. Using statistics mindlessly to state that there were marginally fewer fatal accidents in a hair-split assessment is also not creditable.

As we have been repeatedly emphasising, the cause for so much of bloodshed on the roads is the complete absence of rational policies of urban development and road safety. The comments of Mr. Mohan and Mr.Kumar make it clear that the lessons are far from evident to our administrators.

It is strange, for instance, why no money out of the Rs.10 crores collected as fines has gone into building pedestrian subways in the most congested or dangerous areas. If the traffic police is very clear about high-risk areas, what steps has it taken to invest some of that money in creating facilities to cross roads safely?

I have been witness to people slaughtered by vehicles early in the morning, because motorists will not go by road rules, will not obey lights and there is no policeman on the roads.

For just Rs. 10 lakhs, the traffic police could buy 20 high definition camcorders, and record the road rule violations at major intersections. They could fine motorists with ample evidence, and withdraw licenses from repeat offenders. So why has the Rs.10 crores not helped do something like that?

The pious and platitudinal approach of our administrators to safer and more efficient road systems is pathetic. It displays an unconcern for public welfare, and isolation from everyday reality. 

Volvo-built buses have been operating on some MTC routes in Chennai for a few months now. These ‘head turners’ in an otherwise decrepit and poorly conceived bus service network touch very few destinations, have no frequency worth mentioning and above all, are overpriced for the average commuter.

MTC has been trying to defend these services by putting out PR stories of how a small, luxury-loving group of passengers is patronising the air-conditioned buses, especially now that it is peak summer.

The truth is that MTC, which routinely overloads its ordinary services well beyond capacity and transport permit, appears to be keen not to encourage genuine, comfortable levels of ridership on the Volvo buses (see photo of near-empty bus, a permanent condition). This low patronage has been ensured by overpricing travel, reducing frequency and keeping bus stops so far apart that they are not viable for many commuters.

We can conceive of two reasons for this diabolical approach: once the average population starts showing a liking for the Volvo service, the operator will come under pressure to improve its level of service across the board, starting with airconditioning. That would mean greater investment, which the Tamil Nadu government is unwilling to make, cross-subsidy in ticket sales through different levels of offerings and improved maintenance infrastructures that will affect some of the vested interests currently holding sway in this area within the MTC system. The present poor patronage could be used to scrap the service, if necessary.

Let us look at an alternative scenario for Volvo services. Two major commercial arteries in Chennai are the Anna Road (Mount Road) and the Poonamallee High Road. In the case of the former, it was served creditably in the era before liberalisation by route 18 (Parrys – Saidapet). Over the years, a cash-hungry MTC has extended this route in a meaningless fashion, and deprived the artery of quick and regular connectivity. There are possibilities to introduce a similar route for about 10 to 15 km on Poonamallee High Road from Parrys to Aminjikarai/Anna Nagar. These could be served by Volvo buses.

Strangely, the MTC’s Volvo strategy does not include running such high-demand corridors, where the Volvo service would provide a different class of travel, and if priced right, act as a cross-subsidy element.

What instead has happened is classic MTC sleight-of-hand. The Volvo buses are run on routes so long, and as explained above, so unviable, that most times of day, there are only a handful of passengers. The exception during some parts of day is route A1, from Central to Thiruvanmiyur, but with far fewer stops than optimal.

We therefore demand that the MTC relook its Volvo strategy and deploy newer services on such arteries, to provide a commuting alternative. This will become crucial as other bus companies such as Ashok Leyland also offer their newer models, such as the iBus, (see photo) which boasts of both executive and economy classes in the same bus.

We also seek a shift away from the trend of rigging truck chassis with bus bodies and passing these contraptions off as modern buses, to avail of funding under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Most of the new buses produced for MTC by poorly qualified bus body builders are of this kind. They are uncomfortable, flimsy, poorly engineered and unfair to commuters, who expect better in an era when personal vehicles such as cars and two-wheelers are meeting global standards.