Bus operators struggle as SGR drains passengers

Taboa’s director of communications, Mr Mustapha Mwalango said that since the inception of SGR, most of the buses have been affected and some operators have been forced to park some of their buses.

“At first, when the operations of electric-powered train services started, we thought it would not affect us.

The reality is that Tanzanians have welcomed and understood SGR very much, “he said.

He said,” The commencement of SGR has contributed to the reduction in the number of passengers and most bus operators have already reduced the number of buses or route frequency due to the limited number of passengers.

In fact, some buses do not have passengers at all.”

According to him, the pinch and pain for them has been severe, and there are some routes that have stopped.

A single train trip carries between 700 and 900 passengers.

"It would take several buses to transport such a number of passengers," he said.

Mr Mwalongo said it was only a quarter of the usual number of buses that currently ply the Dar es Salaam-Dodoma route as passengers are attracted by the speed of the SGR trains.

This, he said, was because the buses spend a lot of time on the road due to speed limits and other obstacles, including being compelled to pass at weighbridges.

It takes just about three hours and twenty minutes for an electric-powered train to travel between Dar es Salaam and Dodoma while the same distance takes up to 10 hours for a bus.

“As such, we do not expect to compete with the electric-powered train. The best we can do is to collaborate with TRC to ensure bus operations continue to exist,” he said.

The director for BM Coach, Mr Basiri Makundi told The Citizen that since the start of electric-powered train services, the business has taken a serious nosedive.

“Before the SGR services started, we used to deploy between 20 and 22 buses on the Dar es Salaam –Morogoro route on a daily basis while ten more were deployed on the Dar es Salaam- Dodoma route.

But, as things currently stand, we only deploy six buses on the Dar es Salaam-Morogoro ruote and only four for the Dar es Salaam- Dodoma route,” he said.

He said they were also considering establishing new routes to enable them to overcome the challenge.

A representative for Shabiby Bus Company, Mr Edward Magawa said during a morning TV programme on UTV yesterday that though the impact was massive and vivid, their only appeal to the government was to ensure that there was a balance in the equation.

"It should try to see how bus operators, who are also taxpayers, can continue with the business," he said.

He said, the decrease in the number of passengers at bus stations not only affected them but it also affected various people including petty traders, food vendors and others related businesses.

According to him, at Shabiby, they were currently working on a way to d their business by looking at other destinations instead of relying heavily on teh Dar es Salaam-Dodoma route.

Mr Magawa asked the government to establish bus stations near SGR stations so that it could be easy for passengers to connect or access buses and continue with their journeys.

The director of road transport at Latra, Mr Johansen Kahatano admitted that the bus business has drastically gone down.

He said two weeks before the commencement of electric-powered train services, they conducted a survey for the Dar es Salaam- Morogoro route.

The survey centred on the total frequency buses as tracked through the Vehicle Tracking System (VTS).

"We realized that a bus that used to start from Dar es salaam to Morogoro and then returns from Morogoro to Dar es Salaam and once again goes back to Morogoro from Dar es Salaam (three trips) has reduced the trips to only two [Dar es Salaam-Morogoro and back to Dar es salaam only]," he said.

Besides, he said, the number of passengers on board the buses has also gone down by 20 percent.

"As for the Dar es Salaam-Dodoma route, a team of experts is currently conducting the survey to see the impact of SGR on buses and we will soon come up with the results,” he said.

He said next week, they intend to hold a stakeholders' meeting with transporters and Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) in an effort to ensure that there is a place near SGR stations where buses can pick passengers as soon as they arrive via the train.

This will reduce the burden that passengers go through as they seek to connect to their final destinations after arriving in Dodoma.

It will also simplify connectivity for passengers travelling to Singida, Mwanza, Babati and other locations.

He however said that Latra was not considering changing the speed limit for buses, saying the current one [limit] was put in place considering the security of passengers.

The most important thing, he said, was for operators to collaborate with all key players to sustain the business.

"It is true that the response of passengers taking the train is very high and many connect or take buses when they reach Dodoma.

As I mentioned, the connection between the train and buses is significant. As suc, if we, the stakeholders, sit together, we will look at ways to help the people connect.

Dodoma is going to become a hub for connecting train passengers," he said.

A Super Baraka Bus agent at the Magufili Bus Terminal, Ms Zawadi Chusi, said it has become very difficult for her to find passengers travelling between Dar es Salaam and Tabora.

It is, however, an open secret that buses will always remain vital to some of the passengers because not everyone from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma travels via the train.