Editorial: Ministers in Trotro

Imagine sharing a seat with the Minister of Transport in a rickety trotro from Madina to Accra Central, with the driver’s mate calling out the route as the vehicle cruises along the road.

Yesterday was World Transport Day, a day set aside to underscore the importance of public transport around the world.

Public transport plays critical roles in every country, with Ghana not being an exception. Its importance cannot be over-emphasised in the country and so anything pertaining to enhancing it should be given every encouragement.

Whereas the system is streamlined in some parts of the world, in others, it is haphazard, with all manner of vehicles partaking in ferrying passengers from one part of the city to another.

Successive governments have initiated arrangements to streamline the commuting of passengers around the city but, unfortunately, with little to show for it.

Such efforts have included formulation of germane policies and the introduction of transport modules to tackle intra-city movements.

The Omnibus Authority, as we had it sometime ago when various routes in Accra were known by their numbers, is now a thing of the past.

Those were the days when for instance, school children memorized such numbers and could even in some cases predict arrival times for the buses.

Bus 7 for instance was known to ply the Korle Bu route, Bus 21 Madina and 13 Nima. For the old folks in town, these are the good old days gone forever.

We think that these days can be revived if the authorities confer on the subject and show utmost commitment towards ensuring that the system works for the good of the citizenry.

One of the challenges of public transport in the cities, especially Accra, has been about managing the fleet of buses in a manner which ensures efficiency and longevity of the vehicles.

The management system of the Omnibus Authority in the 60s was unlike what we have today.

Those days, inspectors were stationed along the routes and such officials demanded total commitment on the part of drivers and conductors.

There is the need to also look at the issue of bus stops in the city by ensuring that an adequate number of these are constructed along the intra-city routes.

Unless we alter our working culture and the way we consider public property, we would continue to waste time and money establishing ventures like public transport.

Recently, there were news stories about how buses in the fleet of the Metro Mass Transport system were being mismanaged by both drivers and mechanics.

It came as a surprise to many Ghanaians that having come this far, since independence, we would continue to treat public property as though they do not belong to all of us as citizens of this country.

We call on the authorities to embark on an exercise to unearth new ways of managing our public transport system so that it would serve the interest of all of us.

It is our belief that a well-managed public transport system would serve the interest of the people better, since the private one is more profit-oriented with little or no interest of the patrons.

A well-run public transport system would, in our view, reduce the traffic jams encountered on roads in the nation’s capital in particular and we encourage it.

It would also reduce the burden on the economy by reducing the demand for fuel by motorists.

In the developed world, motorists patronize public transport for several reasons, one of which is convenience, since getting parking lots in the cities, especially, is a demanding challenge.

It is our wish that the lessons of Wednesday would inform the promulgation of a public-centered intra-city transport system and not mere populism.