By Kwasi Opoku-Adusei Agyemang Wiredu
It is high time the government through the Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development use the Aayalolo buses at a fixed rate.
The London Bus and New York City Bus system, can be replicated here to help reduce traffic and fares for citizens especially in the major cities.
In London and other major cities worldwide,there are buses that travel at a perked rate and arrive on time. For example in London, TFL Buses are priced at £1.65 for an hours’ journey, so if you alight in 10 minutes, the price remains the same, and if you change 5 buses within that hour, the price remains the same.
Same can be implemented here using the BRT AAYALOLO BUSES with maybe Ghs 10 as perked price. We can use 4 places to pilot, thus Oyarifa which will cover Adenta, Madina, Atomic, Legon, 37 through to Accra Central. Nsawam which will cover Amasaman, Pokuase, Ofankor, Achimota through to Accra Central. Kasoa which will cover Weija, Mallam, Kaneshie through to Accra Central and lastly Tema which will cover Teshie, Nungua, Labadi through to Accra Central.
Mind you I said these can be a week or two piloting stage.
Let me break it down with an example to make it simple, lets assume I’m moving from Adenta and I get on the Ayalolo bus, I will tap with my digitized card (loaded with money) already, knowing very well the perked rate, it will be easier for me to determine if to use Ayalolo or not because if I move from Adenta to Legon, it will cost me 10ghs and if I move from Adenta to Accra Central, it will cost same amount and I can also change buses or get on board another bus all within an hour range. With time, we can introduce weekly and monthly tickets.
They can increase the buses in the morning and evening with maybe (5-10) minutes to pass, when people are going to work or coming home and reduce the number of buses in the afternoon (20-30 minutes of wait time).
With this alot of people will park their cars and utilize the state owned because parking spaces or permits can go up in Central Accra to reduce decongestion.
The digitized card will make it easier for funds to be loaded and people can use their Momo to buy tickets on their cards, with this it will be easy for Accountability. People can buy Aayalolo Bus cards from outlets and shops.
