“Travails of a bus and rail commuter”
I read with interest the article under the above heading about Kishu Gomes’ attempt to use public transportation in Colombo which appeared in the September 11 issue of the Business Times, and wanted to respond.
As an urban transportation expert and expatriate Sri Lankan I have a detached but still interested perspective on Colombo’s urban transport. I visit Sri Lanka every few years, and I have witnessed the explosion of the number of cars in Colombo. While I share Kishu’s skepticism about the current public transportation system offering a viable travel alternative to those who can afford to drive a car, I do, however, think there is some light at the end of the tunnel. First, a feasibility study on railway electrification was finished earlier this year. It recommended, not just electrification but an upgrade of stations, signalling and track on the most heavily trafficked corridors. If implemented, this will greatly improve the capacity of the railways, an underutilised asset to move people. Second, there is currently a feasibility study underway for light rail. Unlike prior studies on monorail, this will run largely at grade and be affordable and fast provided traffic light preemption is provided. Light rail would provide a pollution free and quiet form of public transportation that Colombo has never seen. I think both projects should be pursued as they make eminent sense.
However, even if railway electrification is completed and a light rail line is built, this will still leave vast swaths of the Colombo metropolis without reliable and fast public transportation. The best alternative that is affordable to Sri Lanka is Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) which is deployed in hundreds of cities worldwide, including a few cities in neighbouring India. BRT is much like light rail with rubber tires. It has a proven record of carrying hundreds of thousands or even over a million passengers a day in cities in Latin America. To work effectively, however, it requires dedicated lanes, and traffic light preemption/priority. This will be politically difficult, now that half of all trips are made by private car, but nevertheless a prerequisite for success. I sincerely hope, the business community and others advocate the implementation of BRT in Greater Colombo.
I look forward visiting Colombo in the future, and finding a vastly improved public transportation system. (Dharmithran Guruswamy, AICP CTP
Arlington, Virginia, US )