| Azaraimy HH |
BRUNEI Darussalam will continue to develop methods that ensure an efficient and sustainable public land transportation system.
Dr Haji Supry bin Haji Awang Ladi, Director of the Land Transport Department (JPD), Ministry of Communications said yesterday that countries like Singapore and Australia which have a similar geographical profile to that of Brunei continue to look for the best ways to ensure their public land transportation system are more efficient and sustainable.
Speaking at the Knowledge Convention, he highlighted the importance of providing an efficient transport system that can facilitate an easy movement of people, which in turn contributes towards national productivity and development.
He spoke on the effectiveness of local bus and taxi services, high private car ownership and the need for high investment in public transportation system.
He said the first bus to operate in Brunei was in 1968. Since 1982, licences were given to 275 companies. However, only 12 companies are active and operating. The first bus franchise operating in Brunei-Muara was launched in 1995 and then in stages until 2010 and run by two companies and three local cooperative bodies until now.
The first bus franchise in Belait District started on 2000 and was operated by local companies.
The licences of these companies and cooperatives’ will expire in 2017.
A study on the ‘Brunei Land Transport Masterplan’ was conducted by a consultant from 2012-2013 involving 9,000 respondents, either through interviews or questionnaires. The study also studied the movements of 600,000 vehicles nationwide.
Dr Haji Supry bin Haji Awang Ladi, Director of Land Transport, delivering his speech. – AZARAIMY HH
The study found that 24 per cent of the public wanted a new mode of transport such as MRT, LRT, Monorail and other alternatives.
Some 20 per cent of respondents recommended the government improve the existing bus systems and taxis. Only 41 per cent of the public are satisfied with the existing land transport services.
Existing problems include unreliable service, short operating hours, not following the intended routes, not stopping at designated bus stops and not adhering to schedules.
The survey found that an average of about 40 per cent of the public were dissatisfied with the frequency, reliability and availability of information on the bus services.
Dr Haji Supry also said the total number of vehicles in Brunei Darussalam showed an increase of eight per cent annually since 2013. This figure was based on the number of registered vehicles that are active, which was 262,000 in 2013, 285,000 in 2014 and 306,000 in 2015.
With the population of around 411,900 in 2014, the ratio of people to cars is about 1.5 which is considered a high number and a challenging factor in the efforts to transform the public transportation system.
The effort to introduce a franchise taxi system since 2009 has until now has brought no result and the effort to upgrade the public bus system since 2013 has so far produced little result. Dr Haji Supry said that this is because the issues still exist within the public bus and taxi system that are not regulated and less reliable.
The government’s public transportation system transfo-rmation project strategy aims to develop a business model to ensure a win-win situation for the authority and bus operators and ensure sustainable bus operation.
The strategy also includes the setting up of Brunei Public Transport Authority (BPTA) as a regulatory body and a legal framework, to set bus types and standards, regulates fares routes, schedules and development of interchanges/bus stops to improve connectivity and accessibility, provide infrastructure and dedicated lanes for buses, Intelligent transport System: ITS (IT-Based ticketing system, bus tracking, security surveillance and entertainment) to enhance reliability and to discipline drivers and operators, and enforcing regulated taxi services by the introduction of taxi meters, implementing regulated taxi fares which are affordable and accessible leveraging on the advancement in ICT.
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