Ideas for transforming Yangon’s transportation sector are all the rage of late.
There’s the much-improved circular railway; the constant talk of new flyovers that will vanquish gridlock on the roads; and last week, an informal proposal to levy a congestion or traffic tax on drivers coming downtown.
But just when you thought nothing else could be done in the bubbling transportation sector, officials have added buses into the mix.
Specifically, there are two new projects: the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) and the SRT-1 electronic payment service.
Both are set up through private-public ventures. According to the Democratic Voice of Burma, the BRT is launching its service along Pyay and Kaba Aya Pagoda roads in about four months time, and the SRT-1, which uses cards to pay fares, went live on May 3.
Chief Minister Myint Swe with Yangon’s divisional government assembly was quoted as saying at the BRT launch on Monday that if it proved successful, “it will ease traffic congestion in the city to some extent and make life more convenient for both drivers and commuters.”
Interesting. But as DVB points out, there are 360 bus operators in Yangon (mostly run by private companies) with a total fleet of 3,500 vehicles. So unless these new services completely replace the old ones, it’s hard to see how having 362 bus operators would do anything but increase congestion and make daily commutes more miserable.
Photo: Wikicommons/Michael Coghlan
