A NEW APPROACH TO IMPLEMENTING BUS SERVICES - THE LAHORE EXAMPLE

Conventional bus operation in cities of developing countries can provide effective and affordable transport for a wide range of the population. On the other hand, it is frequently found that development constraints severely limit the performance of bus companies. This paper describes recent results of implementing new services requiring over 100 buses in one corridor of Lahore, Pakistan. The planning of new services was based on extensive studies of the demand, road conditions and development potential for bus and other modes. These results were obtained from the first stages of a comprehensive project to improve public transport in Lahore. The project involves designing bus routes, traffic management schemes, new depots and workshops, maintenance and operating systems and related organisations. To implement the improvements it is necessary for the bus company to assimilate many new ideas regarding working practices. Therefore extensive management advice and training is given, especially with regard to maintenance. An important short-term aim was to achieve high daily passenger carrying performance for the new buses - by enabling about 80% of buses to be on road, scheduling buses to operate 250 productive km on routes permitting reasonably high load factors (about 0.5). Six months after implementation of the first new routes this aim was being achieved even though full operations, maintenance and administration systems had not been fully implemented. In other developing countries the shortage of public transport produces a strong pressure on passengers to board overloaded buses. Under these extreme conditions average load factors can be as high as 0.8 and costs can be covered by low fares. In a city such as Lahore, where publicly and privately operated buses compete on the same roads, the supplies from the public and private sectors must be carefully balanced if costs are to be covered by low fares. (a) for the covering abstract of the seminar see IRRD no 272657.