WB execs, Osmeña discuss city's mass transport system

The visiting representatives from the World Bank yesterday discussed with Mayor Tomas Osmeña his request for the bank to fund an experimental study on a mass transport system in the city.

No final deal has been reached, but Osmeña said they have discussed setting up a prototype of the transport system, including the establishment of a demonstration route so the public would be familiar with the system.

Osmeña said the mass transport system would be bus-based and that the World Bank is an appropriate agency to help the city considering that it has already dealt with similar traffic problems around Southeast Asia.

The mayor, however, emphasized that the talks were just part of the early stages of the process as the study and the establishment of the prototype would even take a long time.

The project will certainly be costly, but Osmeña said only a small portion of the city would be subject of the prototype so that it would not be too costly for the World Bank. "This experimental project is part of the learning process."

Years ago, Cebuano congressmen Raul Del Mar and Eduardo Gullas passed two measures proposing to establish a rail-based mass transit system in Cebu City and Metro Cebu. Approved in principle by the House committee on railways and ro-ro (roll on, roll off) systems, the proposals were aimed to address Cebu's worsening traffic condition.

However, Osmeña reiterated yesterday his opposition to the measures, saying that they would not benefit all residents, especially the urban poor.

"I was never interested in LRT (light rail transit) because it is only for the rich. We don't have enough rich people to justify the establishment of LRT," Osmeña said.

He argued that if the rail transit system is hardly profitable in Paris, France and Los Angeles in the United States, the same may hold true in Cebu.

The mayor, however, said that the bus transport system that would be patterned after a Mexican model is more profitable, bankable, and therefore affordable for the low-income residents of the city. - Joeberth M. Ocao/LPM