[sustran] Re: fare deregulation and bus

[Barter, Paul]

Dear Shamsul
I am glad you managed to get this question through to sustran-discuss.
Did anyone get back to you with help? Sorry for my slow response.

Premium Bus services seem to be one of the various attempts to escape
from the nasty politics of bus fares, finance and service viability...
There have been reports of success with these (at least for a time) in
various places - eg Manila's 'Love Buses', Bangkok's airconditioned
services, and private minibuses; Jakarta's PATAS services...  Not sure
about the long term survival of all these however. Maybe someone else
out there can chip in with recent news?

Have you seen the following?

Gwilliam, K.M. (April 2000) Public Transport in the Developing World -
Quo Vadis?, Discussion Paper TWU-39, Transport Division, The World Bank.
(can be downloaded somewhere in World Bank web site - you will need to
search)
- this has a useful overview of the issue I seem to remember. 

For an interesting perspective on the vicious cycles in bus fare
politics and a theoretical interpretation (in the wider context of
infrastructure regulation) see chapter 4 on Sri Lanka's buses in the new
book by Jose Gomez-Ibanez, "Regulating Infrastructure: Monopoly,
Contracts, and Discretion'. 

Also see http://www.sutp.org and various documents there, including the
Sustainable Transport: a Sourcebook for Policy-makers in Developing
Cities. I am not sure but there may be something relevant in there. 

See also http://www.worldbank.org/transport/urbtrans/pubtrans.htm which
might have some more World Bank stuff of relevance. 

I hope this helps a little. 

Paul

Dr Paul A. Barter
Public Policy Programme, 
National University of Singapore
5 Arts Link, Singapore 117570 
Tel: +65-6874 3324;  Fax: +65-6778 1020
Email:  paulbarter at nus.edu.sg

Are you interested in urban transport in developing countries? Then
consider joining the SUSTRAN-DISCUSS list, an email discussion and
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Shamsul AMA Hoque [mailto:sam_aminul at yahoo.com] 
> Sent: Tuesday, 16 March 2004 8:35 PM
> To: Barter, Paul
> Subject: fare deregulation and bus
> 
> 
> I am looking for information (project experience) about the fare 
> deregulation policy for the bus industry within the developing 
> countries. 
> 
> Paul 
> 
> If you receive this mail, please forward this mail.
> 
> It would be more helpful if some of these references are related to 
> improved quality bus services, what is more commonly known 
> as "Premium bus service" (PBS) for Dhaka City which was initiated in 
> 1997 by The World Bank. 
> 
> This PBS is providing better level of services in terms of journey 
> comfort, reliability, safety and security, and schedule time 
> information availability compare to those services provided by 
> regular buses. Of course PBS is charging higher fares (almost 2.5 
> times higher than those fare by regular buses) but on the other hand, 
> PBS is charging half for majority passengers who would otherwise used 
> an alternative para-transit mode, Auto-rickshaw. Initially started by 
> a private company and gradually government owned public transport 
> operator also started these similar services. Later, more private 
> operators have joined to become premium quality bus operator. 
> 
> I am also interested to get any link about the other success/failure 
> project stories from anywhere. 
> 
> Thank you
> 
> Shamsul AMA Hoque
> sam_aminul at yahoo.com
> 
> 
> 
>