THE HIKE in bus fares is supposed to increase revenue to the cash-strapped and struggling JUTC, which is subsidised by the Government to the tune of some $2 billion per year. Despite the whopping 67 per cent fare increase, the company, which has been further handicapped by poor management, will still be miles away from solvency and will have to continue to rely on massive subsidisation from the public purse in order to survive.
Even with the substantial increase, which no private enterprise in today's highly competitive business environment could dare hope to get away with, bus fares remain comparatively low and will not solve the income problems of the JUTC. Civil servants, under wage restraints from the public sector Memorandum of Understanding, have managed to wangle through their unions concessionary fares specifically for riding on JUTC buses.
As a writer to our letters page has pointed out, in the mad rush to concession, public servants outside the JUTC service area have been forgotten and left out in the cold. Only one of five sales outlets for smart cards was operational on Monday, the first working day after the fare hike on Sunday.
The outlets, few in number, are to be opened three days per week during prime working hours of 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. when Government employees should be busy producing something at work. When travel cost to secure concession for travel, the limit of 10 rides per week and the exclusion of large numbers of public servants are factored in, it is hard to see how this further loss of revenue to the bus company is any real gain to Government employees in general.
After days of chaos, the fare tables for route taxis, the main legal competitors to the JUTC, were belatedly made available. The travelling public, including civil servants, have exhibited a distinct preference for route taxis.
The fare differentials have been so structured in the wisdom of the Government to continue to give the route taxis strong competitive advantage on value for money.
But taking the cake in this whole chaotic business of increasing JUTC bus fares is the admission by the company's planning manager, Kirk Finnikin, that the struggling company may be forced to cut back on existing routes as ridership is expected to fall from the impact of the increase!
The JUTC, running half-empty buses alongside full and fast route taxis when the buses are not dead by the side of the road, saw up to a 10 per cent decline in passenger load when more modest fare increases were made in 2001 and 2003.
All things considered, it is unlikely that this most recent fare increase will do anything to improve the financial and operational health of the JUTC. The Government needs to take a closer look at and insist on effective management changes at the bus company.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
