A prudent step

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The Cabinet has approved the setting up of a Committee to work out proposals with regard to the restructuring of the Railway Department, according to Minister Dr Bandula Gunawardhana. He told the Cabinet briefing on Tuesday that it was time that the whole structure of the Railways and the quality of the service is subject to a complete re-assessment in the wake of the constant breakdown in the train services as a result of Trade Union action. He said it has become a norm now for train services to become crippled on and off inconveniencing thousands of office workers in the public and private sector who use this popular mode of public transport. He said this has become a big issue and it was the view of the majority of the train commuters that the Railways should be restructured.

It was only the other day that train services stalled altogether due to some dispute involving the engine drivers causing huge inconvenience to the public, especially the office workers who were left stranded. The bulk of office workers who are train travellers hold season tickets and the cancellation of train services would mean they have to incur additional expenses for bus travel. If it is not the engine drivers on strike it is the Station Masters or some minor employees causing nightmares to train travellers. The other day TV showed a group of tourists who had already booked train tickets to leave for the hill country complaining that there were no trains to take them to their destinations. There was also an instance where another group of tourists were left stranded in some remote corner of the country and were seen on TV walking along the bare tracks, due to yet another lightning strike by the railway. How pray, are we going to rebuild the fallen tourist industry if our overseas visitors are given such a raw deal?

Hence drastic action is needed if the train services are made to run smoothly without interruption. The demands of the Trade Union are secondary to the needs of the travelling public. If, like the Minister said, the Trade Unions refuse to pay heed to his call for allowing train services to operate uninterrupted there is no other alternative than to resort to restructuring. The public cannot be allowed to be held to ransom in this fashion where train strikes are being staged at the drop of a hat. The country also could not afford the lost man-hours at workplaces as a result of delays or absenteeism of workers as a result of constant train strikes.

Countermeasures should also be found as regards strikes called by private bus operators. Here too, private buses go off the road for the most flimsy of reasons. It is also time that the private bus mafia is tamed so that the travelling public will not be made pawns to its designs. In this regard, the move by the Minister to refurbish 400 out of the 852 SLTB buses that were out of service for over three years is a prudent step. Already 175 such buses have been put into operation augmenting the present fleet. The answer to the strikes staged by the private bus operators lay in deploying more SLTB buses. The minister should also consider importing more buses to meet the present demand. True, the private bus service, at the very inception, performed a satisfactory service and effectively filled the breach left by the inadequacy of the State-run service. But with the passage of time, the private bus operators became a law unto themselves and started flouting all the laws and highway rules with even the Police turning a blind eye to the violations. Perhaps, this comes as no surprise because most of the private buses are owned by top Police officers and State officials.

Measures should also be taken to enforce discipline among the private bus crew. We say this because their conduct and behaviour are, for the most part, uncouth and insulting. Perhaps, the owners of the private buses employ such characters taking into account such traits to earn more by intimidating passengers and their rivals. It is also common for private bus crew to withhold balance money and refuse to issue tickets. When Mahinda Amaraweera was Transport Minister under Yahapalanaya he banned the playing of music in private buses while travelling, following complaints. However true to form as with everything else in this country the ban was short-lived and the Yakko music started blaring forth once again to the great annoyance of the commuters. Hence, it is time that private bus operators too are brought to heel and made to abide by the rules. We say this because today speeding is the norm with private buses in order to overtake rivals to swell the earnings in the process endangering life and limb. The attention of the authorities should also be drawn to the claim by the Private Bus Association President that 60 per cent of the private bus crew in the Western Province are taking drugs such as ICE. If true, this is cause for concern from the point of view of the safety of the passengers and all other road users. Measures should therefore be taken to conduct constant checks on private buses to ascertain if their drivers are indeed stoned and if so steps taken to deal with them under the law.