My tryst with destiny

Dei shanmugam edra vandiya

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

People taken for the ride - Do we have a solution?

I wanted to write on this for a long time now. The plight of ordinary people who depend on bus for their commutation. First of all who use the bus facility.
1. Those who can't afford any other mode of transportation. (line between share autos and buses are diminshing)
2. Those who wants to travel long distance and hence don't prefer using personal mode.

Category 2 is small but significant. It is better to sweat it out in the bus rather than die in the traffic. The bus fares used to be fair. So fair that we don't know if it was fare or fair. I certainly don't have the data to compare the prices across ages and see if the fare was adjusted to inflation. But if it is not affordable to poor people, then let it not be adjusted.
Bus fares like train fares, vegetable prices, petrol prices posed serious threat to the incumbent government when they faced elections. For all those cynics about democracy, you should note this point. An increase of 50 paise would invite hue and cry all over the state. And rightly so because every poor, every individual who is affected knows this rise is permanent and a literally a one-way ticket. The prices can go up never come down.
Since this is a problem, some brilliant tactician came up with express, deluxe and luxury bus concept. Some peole think this is a good idea. Those who can afford more can travel seperately. Well, lets see its cons.

1. It simply breaks people into economic classes. Again whats wrong. When you start paying for deluxe buses and luxury buses, you alienate yourself with mass and you accept that you don't care about the prices. So you are not part of the effective force which can determine the election outcomes based on the prices.
2. Like any unfair business idea, the buses don't offer what they look like they are going to offer. Express, deluxe, luxury buses are crowded in peak hours like any other LSS bus. By the way, when did you last see a white board bus? Like the sparrows in the city, it has become extinct silently.
3. Most important questions for a consumer. Is it worth? Definetly not. The irony is that express and LSS buses offer more space to stand than the deluxe bus. The luxury kind is way out of league. It may work when you go from terminus to terminus but not for shorter distances. They charge Rs.18 for just 3 stops. Moreover, imagine using those services during rainy days.
4. There would be few people still not convinced. I pay more so that i dont want to travel with poor people. No sir, it doesn't work for you as well. The number of buses that operate during office hours are so less that people are forced to buy expensive fares. So when you step into express, deluxe or luxury bus thinking that you will be alone, you are terribly mistaken.

3 Comments:

  • At 5:22 AM , Blogger pradman said...

    Interesting thought...
    You have yourself answered the question by the way in which you have given the examples.

    You have rightly clubbed Petrol, Bus and Train together because they are all subsidized.

    Remember that you are only talking in lieu with Tamil Nadu. Bus fares have always been high in other states.

    Additionally, we see that India is moving towards free market economics and thus subsidies will slowly die out. I would not be too surprised if one day the PDS system is shut down.

    In the context of your economic divide, yes it will be (already happening) stark in the coming days.

    One solution that I can think of is to subsidize public transport by putting a cess on IT. One interesting byproduct of this would be that more people who have paid this cess would try to avail public transport.

     
  • At 7:11 AM , Blogger Ramkumar said...

    Since i am reading "windows and fences" i am in an anti-WTO mood. So i don't want to venture into shutting down PDS thought.

    We do pay educational cess. But are we trying to be beneficiaries? Even further, we don't even now if it is used properly.

     
  • At 11:22 PM , Blogger pradman said...

    There is always a mile's difference between theory and implementation. Let us not delve into that.

    You are making a mistake by comparing this with educational cess. Despite giving cess, your benefit from that extra tax paid is less as the benefit is indirect. Here the benefit is more direct and tangible and hence more people will avail it.

    BTW, by IT I meant Income Tax.

     

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