Passenger Ridership Validation Study for Bus Route B1

Lahore Transport Company (LTC) was established under the provisions of Provincial Motor Vehicles Ordinance (Amendment) Act 2009 as an Urban Transport Company. Government of Punjab notified the company vide. No. SO (NTS) 2-88/2009 in year 2009. LTC was registered under section 42 of Companies Ordinance 1984. LTC is primarily a regulation body, which is tasked to ensure a smooth operation of public transport system in Lahore. LTC is expected to be a self-sustaining company of the Government of Punjab. LTC Operates public transport vehicles on more than 50 approved routes in Lahore through their designated operators from private sector. For ease to the operator and relief to the users, LTC offers operational subsidy to their bus operators. The basis of this is derived from ensuring the operator a minimum passenger ridership guarantee specific to each route. LTC has Concession Agreements (C.A.) with their operators that specify minimum passenger ridership guarantee related to each route. In recent times the public transport regime in Pakistan changed drastically in terms of using CNG as fuel. The public transport in Lahore faced significant issues related to CNG outages, CNG load shedding, intervention in ridership to Ching Chi Rickshaws sharing bus routes etc. This had high impacts on reducing passenger demand and therefore resulted in a change in operational conditions of transport with respect to C.A. signed between LTC and Bus Operator. In order to resolve this issue, LTC initiated detailed surveys on their routes, which had severe impacts on estimated operational subsidy and other operational parameter. Owing to the above, LTC launched a study for re-assuring public transport vital parameters for Bus Route B-1. The route runs from Sandha – R. A. Bazar and covers a length of 16.2 km. The route passes through thickly populated Sandha, MAO College & Secretariat, and commercial center like Mall Road and ends up at R. A. Bazar in Lahore Cantt.