Madaraka Express eating into our profits – bus owners
Passenger bus companies have said they are experiencing low business after the launch of new train services two weeks ago.
Mash Bus Company General Manager Lennox Shalo said morning schedules had recorded reduced passenger traffic, but added that they were trying to cope with the situation.
“At times buses, especially those leaving in the morning, depart with 25 passengers instead of the normal 42 but the evening schedule has not been affected,” he said.
He said they were planning to launch services in new routes.
HIT HARDER
The reduction in the morning schedules is over 50 per cent and the bus firms are expected to be hit harder when Kenya Railways launches two more trains between Mombasa and Nairobi.
Over the past 12 days, Madaraka Express has transported at least 10,000 passengers both ways. This means that, with a bus carrying 42 passengers, the companies have been robbed of 238 busloads, or nearly Sh10 million in revenue, assuming the fare averages Sh1,000.
“We are not against the train services and we know Kenyans have embraced it but we are still studying the business environment before we decide what to do,” Mr Shalo said.
However, he said there was a need for the government to allow fair competition in order to ensure their businesses are not badly affected.
JOB CUTS
“Undercutting will not benefit the economy because, if bus companies start incurring huge losses, they will cut down on costs, including reducing their workforce. There will be job cuts which will not be good for the economy,” he added.
A ticket clerk at Coast Bus said they had also recorded a downturn.
“The number of passengers visiting our offices for booking has gone down by about 50 per cent,” she said.
However, Modern Coast Bus Communications Officer Isaack Audi downplayed the impact of the new train services on the firm’s operations.
He argued that the number of train passengers so far was a drop in the ocean compared to those travelling by their fleets of buses operating across the region.
ADJUST OUR WAYS
“We have not been affected much but rather got a new challenge that requires us to adjust our ways of doing business,” said Mr Audi.
At the moment the firms are hanging on the convenience that their services provide including dropping passengers in Nairobi and Mombasa city centres, unlike the train that drops them at Miritini and Syokimau in Mombasa and Nairobi respectively.