What Indian cities can do to improve ridership levels of Public transport?

For any efficient Public Transit system, ridership is an important factor. In India, majority of the cities rely on public transport. However, the public bus transit system is often inadequate and is in constant need of improvement. There seems to be no explicit ridership strategy in India, both at national and sub-national levels. The decline in bus ridership has been a common phenomenon across most Indian cities.

The State governments try to push for improving public transport ridership through various interventions. For example, Surat’s civic body extended its bus transport services to the city outskirts to facilitate industrial workers. Delhi’s DTC bus service also saw increased ridership after launching point to point services for the office goers & implementing free rides scheme for women.

The Odisha Government launched MO Bus service in 2018 when the city bus service in Bhubaneswar was witnessing low ridership &needed improvement. As a solution, MO Bus was incorporated with real-time technologies & an e-rickshaw system as a last-mile feeder service. Within 12 months, the bus service saw a jump in average daily ridership from just 19,000 to almost 80,000 riders.

Currently, 57% of the city’s commuters use the Mo Bus. Winner of various National awards, MO Bus service has recently been listed as one of the 10 global recipients of Annual Public Service Awards for 2022 by the UN.

Even though buses carry more commuters compared to the metros, this public transport often faces issues related to imbalanced investments. Another area of concern is lack of integration of bus networks with overall city infrastructure. Studies suggest that a clear ridership strategy along with a robust fiscal strategy for integrated public transport can help in improving public transport ridership.

Does your city have a public bus transport system?
Is your city’s public transportation witnessing low ridership levels?
What is your city doing to improve it?

To know why Odisha’s MO Bus service was awarded, read: https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/everyday-explainers/explained-odishas-mo-bus-recipient-un-public-service-award-7986957/