EDITORIAL - Questions on the new role of city buses

City Hall is no longer allowing the use of its Kaohsiung buses for free. A new directive from the General Services Office has pegged bus rental rates from a low of P1,000 to a high of P8,000 depending on the trip distance and purpose of the trip. The only time the buses can be used for free is during funerals -- which is a way of saying a citizen has to die first before his friends and relations can get a free bus ride.

Levity aside, the use of city-owned buses has never been exactly free. There is actually a fee for their use. But because free transportation often provides hefty political dividends, it became expedient to waive the fees as often as was practical. Why City Hall all of a sudden decided to reimpose the fees, and in a manner that gives a commercial ring to it, is unclear.

What is clear, however, is that the city may now have to secure a franchise for its operation of the Kaohsiung buses. While before the fees were clearly token in nature, their collection perhaps merely for maintenance purposes, the new rates offered, measured in distances, delineated by routes, and denoted by trip purpose, clearly suggest the service has evolved into a real business venture.

While trips may remain to be on a case to case basis, still they now compete directly with either regular buses plying regular routes, or special transportation reserved for special purposes, such as tourists buses and vans or car and bus rentals, all of which have franchises to operate from the LTFRB. The Kaohsiung buses cannot be rendered exempt from securing a franchise considering the new commercial nature of its operation.

But perhaps even more important that a franchise is the physical integrity of the buses. How safe are the buses to operate? How safe are they for the people who ride them? Guarantees on safety can no longer be ignored now that the operation of the buses has become a business. Not that safety might be ignored if the use of the buses had remained free. It just has become even more imperative.

Whether the city decides to press ahead with the commercial operation of its Kaohsiung buses or changes its mind and reverts to the old practice of providing free rides, the issue on safety just cannot be set aside. How well maintained are these vehicles? Many of the buses have seen better years. Their integrity needs to be perfectly assured.

In a matter of days, it will be the start of classes. It has been the practice in the past to allow the free use of some of these buses to transport young public school students to their classes. Despite the new directive, it is to be expected that this practice will be allowed to go on. But now that the matter of safety has been raised, maybe the city should not wait for something untoward to happen. City Hall better check the physical integrity of the buses.