The Metro bus projects in Lahore and Rawalpindi have been criticised by politicians and the news media. Some question their high capital costs, others question if we needed such transit in the first place, and still others would like to have the same funds diverted instead to education and health.

Efficient and reliable public transit is a necessary service that the private sector has failed to provide in Pakistan, forcing the State to offer such services.

A plethora of schools, hospitals, and communication infrastructure supplied by the private sector speaks volumes of its ability to deliver for-profit infrastructure and services. The private sector, however, has always failed to deliver quality public transit, among other municipal services, leaving the public sector with no option but to intervene.

Thus, the buses and subways in New York and Chicago, and the Metro bus service in Lahore and Rawalpindi, have to be developed and operated by the public sector.

Know more: Karachi’s public transport on the verge of collapse: report

Metros, or efficient and reliable public transit, are a necessity and not a luxury for urban Pakistan. The private sector, over the past six decades, has made a mess of urban transit services and offered, at best, para-transit in the form of Suzukis, Wagons, and Qingjis. The Punjab government, which once was an active player in delivering urban public transit, had to intervene and offer competitive transit service to those who cannot afford motorised modes of travel, and reduce the demand for motorised trips by offering a viable public transit alternative.

The Lahore Metro, which I reviewed earlier for Dawn, is a successful transit system that carries more than 150,000 passengers every day; in excess of the expected transit demand for the system. The design capacity permits even more ridership provided the fare structure is altered to encourage short-distance rides. The current fixed fare encourages long-distance commuters, which limits the number of riders the transit system can carry.

Given the polarised nature of public discourse in Pakistan, where the PTI and opposition opposes every move by the Sharif governments in the centre and Punjab, it is critical that we objectively review the development of public sector amenities to determine if they are indeed in public’s interest.

The Lahore Metro is a game-changer

 

For starters, the Metro’s utility is lost on those who do not intend to commute by buses or wagons. They believe that the rest can also commute by cars or motorbikes. This is a misconception of enormous proportions.

Take Lahore, for example, where the Japan government funded one of the largest travel demand surveys in Pakistan that collected information from approximately 17,000 households about their daily trip-making. The survey offered a reality-check: most trips in Lahore were made not by car, but by walking by those who could not afford any motorised mode of travel.

The survey revealed that in 2010, only 8 per cent of the trips were made by car in Lahore. An overwhelming 40 per cent of the trips were made by walking and another 5 per cent by bicycle. Motorised two-wheelers accounted for 22 per cent of the trips and public transit accounted for only 12 per cent of the trips.