[sustran] Re: urban rail and transport problems in KL

[Alan P Howes]

On Mon, 27 Sep 1999 19:56:05 +0800, "Lim Eng Hwa"
<katnlim at pd.jaring.my> wrote:

>Lim Eng Hwa replies : Could anyone substantiate otherwise, ie PT  and 
>rail in Europe are doing fine? Any examples of a succesful privatised 
>PT venture?

All I can readily lay hands on is the following;

"Number of [UK] Rail Trips continues to grow by 7%.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
... between April & June, with 7% more passenger trips than in the
corresponding period in 1998.

Quoted in Local Transport Today (LTT), from a report by the UK DETR
(Govt. Dept.). LTT is a good, reliable data source for UK transport
info. 

Also, I believe rail freight traffic is growing strongly in the UK
now, thanks to good management by the US-owned franchisee (and of
course, rail freight in the US is growing by leaps and bounds, with
lines being widened all over the place to cope with the demand).

Oxford, England, is an example of where UK deregulation had beneficial
effects, in increasing (privatised) bus ridership through competition.

>I quote from an address by Mr Wim Westerhuis, Director General of
>IRF Geneva Program Centre during a conference in Finland, June 1999 
>that says..

The IRF's statements (on anything) cannot be taken seriously by any
transport professional. They are merely a lobby group for road
builders.

>A recent BBC report on the privatised rail system
> in UK carried the title - Trains unreliable, late and getting worse"

And don't take too much notice of the general media either. They are
not interested in good news.

>That is why I suggest a need for a comprehensive  financial and
>funding framework that has to be set up to ensure a sustainable balance
>between private and public transport mode, since ultimately it boils 
>downto "who to pay for what ??". Perhaps a need for government 
>intervention and not leave to the free market 

But the trick is to get the government intervention right.

As far as Curitiba is concerned, here is all I have on my m/c at
present:

[I wrote]
>Having checked, seems like Curitiba works like this. The city controls
>fares, routes, schedules etc. Operators purchase a franchise to
>operate on a particular route. All receipts go to the City, who
>distribute them between the operators in proportion to kilometres run,
>presumably after taking out admin costs. It's a revenue pool, similar
>to ones we used to have in the UK. I assume fare increases are
>negotiated between all the parties. The city sets quality standards,
>and monitors and enforces them.
>
>So there is no incentive for operators to compete with each other for
>passengers, but they do have an incentive to increase overall
>ridership. They also have an incentive to cut operating costs.
>
>This info comes from an excellent report, which I have yet to read in
>full. Too much time spent on Usenet! The report is -
>
>"A Sustainable Urban Transportation System: The "Surface Metro" in
>Curitiba, Brazil." by Jonas Rabinovitch and John Hoehn. ISSN
>1072-9496. "No 19", May 1995. I can't quite work out who thepublisher
>is - choose from EPAT/MUCIA, UNDP ...  but copies from Ellen A Maurer,
>Univ. of Wiscosin-Madison, eamaurer at facstaff.wisc.edu or fax (608)
>265-2993.
>
[some else wrote:]
>Reprinted Scientific American
>(without permission)
>
>"..savings enabled Curitiba to keep its fleet of 2,000 buses - owned
>by 10 private companies under contract to the city - among the
>newest in the world.  The average bus is only 3 years old.  The city
>pays bus owners 1 percent of the value of a bus each month; after
>10 years it takes possession of retired vehicles and refurbishes
>them as free park buses or mobile schools.
>
>Companies are paid according to the length of the routes they
>serve rather than the number of passengers they carry, giving
>the city a strong incentive to provide service that increases
>ridership.  Indeed, more than a quarter of Curitiba's automobile
>owners take the bus to work.  In response to increased demand,
>the city has augmented the capacity of its busways by using
>extra-long buses-the equivilant of multicar subway trains.  The
>biarticulated bus, inservice since 1992, has three sections
>connected by hinges that allow it to turn corners.  At full
>capacity, these vehicles can carry 270 passengers..."


Cheers, Alan.
-- 
Alan & Jacqui Howes, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Formerly Perthshire, Scotland)
alanhowes at usaksa.com
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/alanhowes/  [Needs Updating!]

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