New city transport system struggles to get on track

It has been a grueling 10 days for both city commuters waiting in long queues during peak hours and public transporters struggling to live up to their contractual obligation of providing efficient and timely services. Dogged by delays, inadequate buses—most of them old and inefficient—the new city public transport system returns to the planning board on Tuesday September 10 for fine-tuning just 12 days after it was unveiled amidst pomp. Under the new arrangement, three transport companies have exclusive rights to provide commuter services in designated zones. However, it still remains a struggle for passengers to reach their destination on time during rush hour, a situation that has made some sections of the public to suggest that perhaps the change was hurried and could have waited a little while. Despite the contract stipulating that a passenger must not wait for more than five minutes during the peak hours and 15 minutes during off peak hours, passengers queue at taxi parks and bus stages for as long as half an hour. “They still have the old mindset of parking buses in taxi parks and stages until each seat is occupied before setting off,” said Jean Claude Rurangwa, the in-charge of public transport and safety management in the City of Kigali. A meeting between city authorities and the new public transport operators has been summoned for Tuesday to chart the way forward. Top on the agenda is to agree on a strategy to acquire new vehicles to fill the existing gap and replace the old ones. Evening rush hours (5.00-8.00pm) are indeed problematic. On Thursday, The New Times witnessed Gikondo-Nyenyeri commuters wait in a queue for about 30 minutes before two buses arrived at the same time after they were summoned by officials of the responsible company. This has also happened at stages in downtown near the National Institute of Statistics. The route is served by Royal Express that reportedly operates a fleet of 70 buses. It even gets more problematic for those waiting to hike transport mid-way as buses often come already full from the main points of departure or bus terminals. For example, if you are waiting for transport in the morning at Gishushu or Ministry of Justice, buses from Kimironko or Remera going to city centre or Nyabugogo come already full. In the evening connecting to Remera, Kimironko from the same places is equally problematic as buses arrive full. In each situation, the waiting can be longer than an hour because buses take long to leave the bus terminals and stages. In Kimironko Taxi Park, the main transport provider is Rwanda Federation of Transport Cooperatives (RFTC) with quite a number of vehicles in the circuit. Royal Express also dispatches one mini bus to Kicukiro hub every half an hour. Yet during rush hours, RFTC that finds time to brand some of its estimated 1,000 commuter taxis during off-peak hours, is often overwhelmed by the number of passengers. During the rush hours, all buses fill up “I wish the city remained with the traditional transport when we could find buses as we enter the taxi park or at every bus stage”, said a passenger who had been waiting for the bus in Kimironko for almost one hour. “Yesterday, I reached Kinamba at 6.00pm to wait for Royal Express bus to Kicukiro; I spent two hours before getting a bus to go home,” said Faustin Mugiraneza, a technician and resident of Nyanza-Kicukiro. At Kicukiro hub, which is considered the main park of Royal Express, buses arrive at the same time and take as many people as possible but passengers fight for seats. KBS with 111 buses is also struggling to cope with demand during peak hours especially in Giporoso taxi park, Nyabugogo, city centre, and Kicukiro. Charles Ngarambe, Executive Chairman of KBS, admitted that his company has been overwhelmed by the number of passengers. “We were surprised by a big number of passengers, more than what we expected,” he said last week. KBS plans to bring in more vehicles in the next three months in order to boost its fleet to 144 buses. Transporters have also complained about lack of passengers on the newly acquired routes but city officials say it is too early to start complaining because passengers are yet to get used to the availability of the service. There are about 10 new destinations, mainly to suburbs, added when the new public transport system started.