EDITORIAL: Stakeholders in public transport management should get back to the drawing board

For the past few years, Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA), the City of Kigali and other stakeholders have been trying to streamline the public transport sector. Routes were carved up between several big players in the sector, regulations handed down and order reigned, especially in the city centre. One would have expected transport firms to have learnt something by now, especially how to manage passengers and keep time. But RURA thinks the opposite and it is not tasking the matter lightly. The biggest bone of contention is that some passengers wait as long as an hour before getting transport, yet the target has been to aim for five minutes only. Bus operators blame the heavy traffic jams, especially during peak hours. But not everyone agrees. The most common school of thought is that public transport managers are disorganised and do not stick to schedule. Even suggestions that the transport companies need to increase their fleet might not solve the problem if the same level of disorganisation remains. The only solution is to go back to the drawing board and innovate: come up with modern policies of handling the mass movement of people. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel if plans to centralize the fare collection system of the city’s major operators are operationalised. Otherwise we should strive to avoid the public transport chaos that rules in most of our neighbouring countries that have become a nightmare to administrators.

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EDITORIAL: Stakeholders in public transport management should get back to the drawing board