{"id":334120,"date":"2017-07-05T10:59:56","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T10:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=334120"},"modified":"2017-07-05T10:59:56","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T10:59:56","slug":"aayalolo-bus-system-is-a-joke-road-engineer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/07\/aayalolo-bus-system-is-a-joke-road-engineer\/","title":{"rendered":"Aayalolo bus system is a \u2018joke\u2019\u2013 Road Engineer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A road Engineer, Mahama Abdullai, has described as a joke the Quality Bus System (QBS) also known as the Aayalolo bus service, which has been struggling to make profit<\/strong><\/a><\/span>, eight months after operating in Accra.<\/p>\n

He made the remark on the back of revelations that the management of the transport system is operating at a loss, eight months since it began commercial services.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was telling my friends on a platform; I said this thing is a joke. You need to see traffic engineers, sit them down and go through this thing holistically,\u201d the traffic engineer said.<\/p>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”5wM3vcBGOJXHE6oFw0yxCBLNnEjUwxnY”]Reports indicate that, about 197 out of the 245 Aayalolo buses imported into the country for the QBS have not been used since 2016.<\/p>\n

Only a few Ghanaians patronize the QBS, following some processes involved in accessing the buses, including the electronic payment system which many believed should be scrapped to encourage ease access to the buses.<\/p>\n

This situation among others, has resulted in the inability of the company to earn enough to cover operational costs.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast<\/strong> on Wednesday over the development, the road engineer, Ing Abdullai, was skeptical about the survival of the much hyped bus system.<\/p>\n

To him, the system was not \u201cwell thought through\u201d before it was implemented.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the one that they are piloting now, the Amasaman stretch to Accra; it is absolutely impossible to operate such a bus system. The terminal that they are using now is very small located in the premises of the Amasaman police station. The rapid transit system ought to work in a location where there is a very good car park. If you look at the Amasaman road to Accra, we are restricted with two new district barriers. The road doesn\u2019t have a room to maneuver when you are coming in the morning or evening with about 4 kilometer traffic. The system is not well thought through as at now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI even think the one at Adenta en route to Accra is more flexible because of the lanes and the less restriction on it. The Adenta one has similar restrictions at some small sections. Like when you get to the Legon stretch it has three lanes and one of the lanes could be restricted for the buses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from the lack of dedicated lanes for the buses, Ing. Abdullai noted that, Ghanaians were also not ready to embrace the bus system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no discipline, the roads are not even enough for the system,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Low patronage affecting us<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Chief Executive Officer of Greater Accra Passenger Transport Executive (GAPTE), Sampson Gyamenah, while addressing the media, admitted that low patronage of the bus service since it commenced business in 2016, has kept its books in the red.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have a long way to go to be able to break even. We are ramping up the number of passengers and that is the real challenge. When we started the patronage was very poor. In December, we were doing an average of 1, 400 passengers a day,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the State Transport Company (STC), had served notice of acquiring some of the QBS buses<\/strong><\/a><\/span> to augment its fleet.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
\nFollow @AlloteyGodwin<\/a>
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