Omnibus, the conveyance of all

BY CHANDRA Edirisuriya

AN omnibus is a conveyance by which all can travel without any distinction. However, mostly, those who do not own vehicles travel by bus in our country. The omnibus is indeed a boon to anyone rich or poor to travel short distances or very long distances not covered by the railway.

In advanced countries as well as in regulated economies with a sense of priority most people do not travel all the time by their own vehicles for reasons of economy, owing to their unostentatious lifestyles and also to avoid traffic congestion.

In recent pictures of bomb blasts in London one could see how prominent the London transport double decker buses were, well maintained and shining in beautiful bright red colour.

The bus companies in our country were replaced by the Ceylon Transport Board (CTB) in 1958 blue printed on London Transport. The CTB functioned well under the chairmanship of Vere De Mel of Ceylon Civil Service fame.

Motor bus transport started in this country no sooner buses were put on the roads in Britain since we were a British colony. At first there were individual owned buses and buses of different owners sometimes plied on the same route.

Motorable roads were not many in those days. Often there were clashes among the operators for the load, leading even to stabbings. Taking note of the parlous state of affairs that prevailed the British government appointed the Nelson Commission to go into the ills of omnibus transport.

The Commission recommended the issuing of route licences, the formation of limited liability bus companies to replace individual owners and doing away with the open body buses to make room for closed body buses that came to be known as Nelson body buses.

The CTB that took the place of the bus companies was revived by the late Anil Moonesinghe as Minister and Chairman.

He proved that a crumbling transport empire covering the length and breadth of the country could be resuscitated and rejuvenated by dint of sheer determination and meticulous conduct.

He was a one man flying squad and his metallic blue Volkswagon Variant station wagon could be seen parked in nooks and corners even in the wee hours to nab errant bus crews. He made profits out of a concern written off as losing giant.

His modus operandi was to run standee buses even to Anuradhapura during the festive season with two conductors and deploy ticket checkers in the Fiat cars which he got as a personal gift from the Fiat company to nab errant conductors and ticketless travellers.

He also imported a fleet of British built Leyland luxury buses for private hire. Austria where he was our Ambassador recently gave us a gift of 20 buses probably in recognition of his ardour for public transport.

The CTB fleet those days included buses locally built on Mercedes Benz, Leyland Tiger Cub, Fiat, Hino, AEC and OM chases and imported built buses of Mercedes Benz make with Voll bodies and plywood bucket seats or foam rubber cushioned seats, and of Fiat, Albion and Leyland Wayne makes imported from Germany, Italy and UK respectively.

There were even Magirus Deutsche German built buses and a Czechoslovakian make Skoda bus with a trailer, running on Galle road. Later Isuzu chassis were imported from Japan and Tata and Ashok Leyland built buses were imported from India.

In the bus company days initially there were only petrol buses of Chervolet, Ford, Austin, Dodge, Bedford makes built on chasses imported from America and England.

The Sri Lanka Omnibus Company had a large fleet of these buses. It was only later that Leyland Comet diesel chassis were imported by the South Western Bus Company of Sir Cyril de Zoysa. This Company was also the first to get down used double decker buses from London Transport.

The CTB was at a very low ebb by the year 1977 and again individual owners were allowed to operate private buses to meet the passenger transport needs.

Although private buses coming into the scene again has detracted from the orderliness that prevailed in the hey day of the CTB there is one consolation in that there is no wastage as in the case of the state bus services now.

Even the old buses auctioned, sometimes for a nominal price, are very frugally and economically used by private operators. And also private buses, especially long distance buses, are more comfortable to travel in and cleaner than the State run buses.

The fact that maximum use is made of buses by private operators saves valuable foreign exchange otherwise wasted by the State run bus services in not maintaining buses properly.

Pictures of buses discarded in their hundreds in State bus depots can be seen frequently in newspapers and no corrective action seems to be taken. Pilfering of spare parts and tyres from buses was once rampant.

In addition bus conductors sometimes don't issue tickets for the fare charged from passengers. Flying squads to check ticketless travellers are seen once in a blue moon.

The State run bus services have become a white elephant. There has always been an excess of staff owing to successive governments recruiting employees indiscriminately.

Today it seems that in some bus depots there is no money to pay the salaries of drivers, conductors and mechanics who are so vital for the operation of bus services.

I believe there is an excess only of other staff with very high salaries who are not essential for operating buses.

In the bus company days there was the owner, and a driver, a conductor and a cleaner for each bus plus a few mechanics and ticket checkers. There were no big buildings to house offices full of staff not really needed for the main operation.

The SLCTB also runs pilgrims rests and a driving school. If these are also running at a loss the citizen has the right to file action against the SLCTB for engaging in pursuits outside its purview.

In Administrative law there is an English case where a Municipality which provided baths and wash houses to the ratepayers ventured to start a laundry.

The court ruled that operating a laundry is extraneous to the main function of the Municipality and therefore ultra vires. If the state bus operations cannot be carried on without being a burden on the Treasury some drastic action has to be taken, not excluding privatisation. No state concern should employ redundant staff.