Capitalising on private bus operators' discontent ahead of the looming polls, Pakatan Rakyat today offered a lifeline to such companies which are facing bankruptcy as the state-owned Rapid bus services go on a nationwide expansion.

"We in Pakatan are saying we hear you, hold on, the election is at most two months away.

NONE "We will have a public transport policy to ensure existing private stage buses work together and complement (state-owned) public buses," Selayang MP William Leong ( right ) told a press conference at the PKR headquarters this morning.

Leong was addressing the Pan Malaysia Bus Operators Association's (PMBOA) complaint to the Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) which has fallen on deaf ears.

In a letter by PMBOA to Spad dated Jan 9, the association had lamented that it is unable to compete with the Prasarana-owned Rapid buses and noted that the government had said it has plans to expand this service nationwide.

"Since the intention of the government is abundantly clear that Rapid is to nationalise the stage bus industry, then it is only fair to compensate the private sector stage bus operators who cannot continue to operate economically and want to cease operations," the letter read.

Leong said that compared to private bus operators who do not receive a subsidy, the Rapid bus service generates a revenue of RM180 million, but receives a subsidy of RM280 million.

"We are not saying that the government cannot nationalise the bus service, but if that is the intention, it should be done in a fair manner," he said.

However, he said that should Pakatan come to power, it will adopt a complementary role for private bus operators instead of taking over from the latter.

'Private buses have a role'

"The private stage bus will still have a role to play - for example, bringing passengers from Petaling Jaya and also the outskirts - and then you have the (state-owned) public buses operating in towns; it should be complementing, not competing," he said.

When it was pointed out that Prasarana had stepped in due to the failure of the private bus operators in the first place, Leong pinned the blame on weak transport policies.

"What is needed is a corridor system where one company allowed a lucrative route, must also serve some non-lucrative routes.

"If you allow three companies to fight over a lucrative route they are not going to serve the non-lucrative routes," he stressed.

He added that Pakatan will also provide certainty of tenure for the routes to bus companies so they can obtain financing from banks to renew their buses.

NONE "At the moment, bus operators do not know if they will lose their routes and therefore find it hard to obtain financing," he said.

Rapid is now operating in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, and recently expanding to Kuantan as well.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had also announced the introduction of Rapid Kota Baru if BN recaptures Kelantan, and that the service will soon cover Ipoh and Seremban under the Budget 2013.

Early this year, Malacca had been in the spotlight after it forked out RM7.7 million to compensate private bus operators in the state when  it took over their services.

The Malacca state-owned Panorama buses were introduced in a bid to improve bus services as conditions of private buses deteriorated due to poor financing and an inability to serve non-lucrative routes economically.

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