Government Confirms Modernisation Is ‘On Track’ in the Sense That the Track Exists and the Train Is Somewhere on It

Year Seven of the Jeepney Modernisation Programme: Still Modernising, Still Traditional

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board confirmed this week that the Public Utility Vehicle Modernisation Programme remains on schedule to achieve its target of replacing traditional jeepneys with modern, Euro-4 compliant, air-conditioned vehicles by a deadline that the LTFRB described as ‘firm’ in 2017, ‘ambitious but achievable’ in 2019, ‘being recalibrated’ in 2021, ‘subject to review’ in 2022, and ‘on track’ in the current statement without specifying which track or where it is going.

The programme, which requires traditional jeepney operators to consolidate into cooperatives and invest in modern vehicles costing between one point eight and two point four million pesos each, has faced consistent opposition from traditional operators who describe the capital requirement as ‘equivalent to asking us to buy an airplane’ and from urban planners who note that the modernisation timeline has been extended on eight separate occasions without corresponding changes to the fundamental economic challenge that the extension was intended to provide time to solve.

The Operators’ Position

‘I have been driving this jeepney for twenty-two years,’ said operator-driver Ramon dela Cruz, fifty-four, whose unit covers the Cubao to Quiapo route and whose monthly net income after fuel and maintenance he describes as ‘enough for the family, not enough for a two-point-two million peso loan.’ ‘Every year they say next year we must go. Every year, next year comes and they say next year again. I have stopped planning around next year. I plan around the route. The route is real. Next year keeps moving.’

The Modern Units

Approximately twelve percent of the target fleet replacement has been achieved since the programme’s 2017 launch, a figure that LTFRB describes as ‘significant progress’ and independent transport advocates describe as ‘the mathematical definition of not being on track.’ The modern units that have been deployed are, by passenger accounts, air-conditioned, comfortable, and equipped with GPS tracking systems that allow the LTFRB to monitor their location at all times, which is a capability the traditional units lack and which several drivers have noted is not entirely an advantage from the operator’s perspective.

Transport policy information at LTFRB Philippines. Comedy: ClickHole.

SOURCE: http://prat.UK