30 – 10 – 2002: - Fare confusion hinders high patronage
30 – 10 – 2002: - Ministry to review mass
transportation system
30 – 10 – 2002: - Mixed reaction
to mass transport system
Accra (Greater Accra) 30 October 2002Three days after the introduction of the new buses, patronage has improved a bit, but the fare still remains a sticking point. Accra Daily Mail (ADM) went to town to follow up on one of the routes, that is, the Adenta-Accra-Adenta route, which has its station at Kinbu near the Ministry of Roads and Transport.
The driver of the bus, Mr Anthony Mensah said patronage had improved compared to Monday. On our way to Adenta, the bus had only six passengers but was filled when we were coming back to Accra because it started raining heavily and passengers had no other choice but to get on board. Though the passengers complained about the fare they confessed to enjoying the comfort.
Mr Asempa, Public Relations Officer of the Roads and Transport Ministry, later told ADM that the project is still at the pilot stage and as such subject to review. Mr Asempa said twenty new buses would be released by the end of year. He said the buses were solely brought in to assist workers so that market woman and other casual workers would use the existing trotro.
In his opinion the two thousand cedis fare
is ideal for such workers who would often plead to even get
"dropping" home. Mr. Asempa disclosed that the ministry is soliciting
financial help from China and other sources to supplement their efforts so far.
He asked the media to help in educating the public in the new system. - Accra
Mail
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Accra
(Greater Accra) 30 October 2002 - Members of the public have been promised that
a new ticketing schedule for the recently introduced mass transportation system
will be announced in the next couple of days. Deputy Roads and Transport
Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said the new ticketing schedule will address
public outcry against the present arrangement.
It is believed that a parallel ticketing system, under which passengers can
choose to buy a day’s ticket or buy a ticket as and when they board the bus,
will be an ideal alternative.
Agyeman-Manu said in an interview in Accra on Tuesday that the Ministry will
review the operations of the transport system within a month to address public
criticisms and resolve the bottlenecks to be associated with the system. During
the review, the issue of bus stops, time schedules for movement of buses,
management of the transport system and identification of buses for specific
destinations will be dealt with.
He said the buses are expected to be operated on a pilot programme to enable
the ministry to outline a major programme to accelerate implementation of the
scheme. He said an Advisory Committee, chaired by the Principal of the
Government Technical Training Centre at Kaneshie, including representatives of
the Ministries of Local Government, Roads and Transport, transport experts and
the Omnibus Services Authority (OSA) are managing the mass transport system
during the pilot period.
So far, he said, the government has taken delivery of 27 buses built by Neoplan
Ghana Limited out of which 15 have been allocated to Vanef/STC to increase its
fleet and thereby, improve upon its services. He said government expects 73
more buses from Neoplan which would be distributed to other private operators
such as PROTOA, GPRTU, OSA and the Ghana Cooperative Transport Union. - Daily
Graphic
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Accra (Greater Accra) 29 October 2002 - The mass transportation service commenced on Monday in parts of Accra, the nation’s capital, with a very low patronage. Meant to carry 100 passengers each, some of the buses had conveyed 16 passengers in a total of three trips by 11 a.m.
Most people the Ghanaian Times spoke to said there was little information on how the buses operated. Commuters virtually ignored the empty buses and bordered the “trotros” to their destinations. Two of the buses that the paper’s staff joined from Circle to Accra and Circle to Malam, had two passengers and one respectively.
A conductor on one of the buses, which plied Circle-Accra-Circle, had sold out only 12 tickets by 10am even though the bus had made three trips on that route. He said some of the passengers complained that the fare was too much since they would board the buses about twice in a day.
On the contrary, other passengers, especially traders and businessmen, said they had no problem with the fare. Philip Asiedu, an Accounts clerk, said the system was good for him since he moved around a lot and the buses could help him.
For Osman Bello, the system was a great relief. He had used his ticket three times by 11am and expected to use it few more times during the day because of his heavy schedule. Most of the conductors said they were having difficulty trying to convince passengers, some of whom refused to board the buses when they heard that it would cost them ˘2000 for a ticket.
They would not understand that they could use the ˘2000 ticket many times during the day. For instance, Akim Ponnle, a trader, did not understand why he had to pay ˘2000 from Accra to Circle. He refused to pay the amount when the bus got to Circle.
According to the conductors, there was the need to educate the public on the service as well as advertise it. One of them on a bus plying Malam-Accra-Kaneshie-Malam said the bus had designated stops where it would wait for some minutes for passengers to board and alight. He said the buses had 39 seats and a lot of standing space, which could accommodate more than 60 passengers.
When contacted, Michael Osafo-Mensah, chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Mass Transportation System, admitted that information had not gone to the public that much.
He was, however, optimistic that patronage would increase as the people got to know how beneficial and convenient the service was. The service, he said, was operating on five routes with 17 buses. Every route, he said, had two buses with one standby to attend to emergencies.
Osafo-Mensah said a team was on the ground to monitor the operation of the buses, gather information and see how best it could be improved. “We are prepared to do something if there is a need to modify how the buses operate.”
He said the Ministry would sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Omnibus Services Authority (OSA) for the buses to use OSA’s facilities. These would include OSA’s fuel pump stations, workshop and parking yards.
The collaboration with OSA, he said, would
go a long way to support the service since it had no facilities on its own.
That, the chairman explained, could provide financial support OSA, which the
authority badly needed, adding that many of OSA’s drivers had been employed to
man the buses. - The Ghanaian Times
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