The still lighter side of light rail transit system

By Praying Mantis

A small nondescript looking boxed-in news item in the front page of The Island newspaper of 30^th September 2020, under the headline, ‘Cabinet annuls proposed light rail transit system’, pronounced the cancellation of the proposed new mass personnel transport system that was arranged by the previous Yahapalana Government.

It went on to report that Cabinet approval was granted for scrapping the proposed Light Rail Transport (LRT) system, no less, and gave a plethora of reasons for making what looks like that final decision. It signals the final rites of the said system and we could say RIP to LRT. The report claimed that the LRT system which was to be introduced to ease the traffic flow in Colombo, would not help achieve the desired objective. Apparently, although the initial plan was for an LRT system that operated on the surface level, the previous government had ‘arbitrarily’ changed the plan so that the tracks would be built on concrete pillars. That would have caused severe environmental issues, the Cabinet had said. Furthermore, they had remarked that the proposed plan would have led to the demolition of a large number of buildings along the proposed route, causing severe financial losses. That would also increase the cost of the project, the Cabinet had said. They had also noted that the LRT system proposed by the previous government did not offer an alternative to those who travelled to Colombo in private vehicles.

Now then, citizen Silva has some poignant and pertinent questions. Is he to understand that the previous government which initiated this project did not look at all these aspects that the current Cabinet is apparently gravely concerned about? They seem to have made several abiding decisions, some taken arbitrarily according to the newspaper report. Is Citizen Silva to mull over the fact that they probably did not do any feasibility studies on the likely benefits of it, the long-term cost-benefit considerations and the possible environmental damage that would be caused by the project? Is he to assume that members of the present Cabinet were the only people to critically analyse the possible benefits against the alleged rather considerable negative effects of the entire venture? Even if the decision to summarily change the surface running model to one on concrete pillars was taken ‘arbitrarily’ and at the whims and fancies of individuals, would it not have necessitated approval from the Cabinet in power at that time? Citizen Silva, who was just even one of those who voted for the current set of legislators, is perfectly justified in wondering as to why the powers-that-be of the previous government should not be hauled over the coals by some Parliamentary Select Committee or another, for these faults on their part and immediately and comprehensively dealt with, lock stock and barrel? Then good old Silva is also likely to lament that, politicians hardly ever, if not never, put other politicians of the opposite camp in jail. That is simply because of the roles being reversed with time. The politicians of the accusing camp will make a lot of noise and even appear to go hammer and tongs at their opponents but in the end, it would just be like a ‘pûs vedilla’, a damp squib.

The only thing Citizen Silva, who has to travel from Malabe to the Colombo city every day, is worried about is the absolute mayhem on the roads, especially the so-called Parliament Road; this occurs regularly. From Malabe, if he starts at a time even 15 minutes later than 5.30 am, he will be able to reach his workplace only by about 10.00 am, and half-dead in the process as well. In the evening, if he starts off from Colombo later than 4.00 pm, he will get home only around 7.00 pm. Add to this the spectacle of marauding fancy juggernauts of politicians with their security steam-roller types of escorts which regularly travel up and down the Parliament Road, and his desolation would be absolutely complete.

In fact, Citizen Silva’s family and children see him only for a couple of hours every day during weekdays. He is just about home for dinner and then leaves again around 5.00 am. What he is praying for is a decent form of transport that will enable him to leave Malabe around 8.00 am in the morning and get to his office just around 8.45 am, which will also get him back home by 5.00 pm. He had fancy dreams and ambitious visions of this proposed Light Rail thing getting him to the office on time. However, that does not seem to be a plausible thing in the near future and may remain a rather distant dream, perhaps forever.

However, all is probably not lost. The current powers-that-be have promised to think of and look for possible alternatives and even novel replacements to the LRT system. Hurray! Citizen Silva would have thought that it was well worth his voting for this lot. Perhaps it would be an underground tube train system like what you get in the developed Western world and for that matter, some areas of the Eastern parts of our planet, too. Perhaps the Malabe-Colombo tube train stretch would be able to hold its own against the London, New York, Paris, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, Tokyo and even Beijing underground systems. Then sadly, it struck him rather forcefully; no, no , NAH, that would not work even during his lifetime. The horrendous potentially negative effects would be truly and absolutely prohibitive. Digging simple tunnels in the Uma Oya project in the hill country played havoc with the houses around, with cracks in walls, sinking of the house etc. Digging transport tunnels under existing infrastructure was just not on. Besides, we might have to sell our country to another really powerful country of the world to enable citizen Silva to get his Malabe-Colombo underground link!!!!

Then citizen Silva had visions of some worthwhile alternatives. Perhaps it could be some sort of air transport, complete or partial. By partial, we mean passenger cable cars. The big snag with these is that if there are power failures, the passengers would be left literally hanging in the air. Transport planes were definitely out, too short a distance for it. Large transport helicopters would be an alternative but then they have their own problems. They would be prohibitively expensive as well. Each trip would cost Silva an arm and a leg. Same sort of problems would be there with hot air transport balloon systems. Large transport drones perhaps may be another possibility or for that matter flying saucer transport systems. Old Silva was certainly beginning to let his imagination run riot. Yet for all that, if our drivers or pilots or whatever you call those who man air transport systems, drive or pilot any air transport system the way they do with those contraptions with wheels on our roadways, may God help us.

On a serious note, we need to get down to earth and plant our feet very decisively on terra firma. This principal city of Colombo of ours and its suburbs desperately needs some form of mass passenger transport system that will get us from point A to point B in a reasonable time. One way is to increase the numbers in the fleets of passenger buses, in both public and private sectors. However, most unfortunately, that would lead to more severe traffic jams and chaos on our roads. Of course, one could improve and develop our train services but then there are no surface train stations in most of the areas in Colombo and the suburbs that one may need to go to. Sometimes, over reasonable distances, one could even walk and get to the place that one wants to go to before one could get there in any vehicle. Clearly, there does not seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel when you seriously consider these alternatives.

Yet for all this, when one thinks about it, some form of monorail Mass Passenger Transport System (MPTS), with up and down tracks, each going one-way, on the surface of Mother Earth or elevated on concrete pillars, would definitely be the answer to the woes of travel in Colombo and the suburbs. If planners could get down to brass tacks and organise their brains, the elevated tracks could possibly be built above the existing broad roads. It will certainly take time, money and a determined effort, but the end result would probably be worth its weight in gold.