THIS is apropos the letter ‘Metro bus vs real issues’ (May 30). Perhaps the writer has not had the chance in recent years to travel in public transport. An example is of wagons operating on (Saddar) Rawalpindi to Pakistan Secretariat, (Islamabad) route.

The wagon transport picks up passengers for the Secretariat, drops them at Chandni Chowk, Satellite, Rawalpindi. Reason, they are not going any further. After a few minutes, they pick up passengers from the same stop and drop them at Faizabad to Aabpara, Islamabad, to Secretariat. In this manner, four fares are being charged for travelling on this route.

Moreover, a wagon is authorised to carry 10 to 11 passengers a trip, whereas the commuters are packed like sardines, up to as many as 17 passengers.

It is unfortunate that public transport has been neglected. Yellow cab was a good scheme. It died a political death. It was mishandled at the processing and implementing stages.

One of the reasons was that it was duty-free. If that was the reason, the subsequent stock should have been disposed of, with custom duty. The cars under this scheme were sold to civil servants and the military.

Now it is the metro bus project. If given a choice, I would any day prefer a reasonably comfortable and punctual public transport to commute instead of using a personal car.

M.K. Sufi

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2015

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