CHAPTER 2

BACKGROUND & PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

2.1 LAND USE & TRAFFIC PATTERN IN THE AREA

Sri Lanka is a developing country with around 20,010,000 inhabitants living in an area of
62,705 km2 and the population density is 319 per km2 in year 2007. Colombo is the
largest city and major economic center in Sri Lanka with a metropolitan area of 5.6
million inhabitants which is expected to grow 8.4 million by the year 2030.

The main urban transport issues in Sri Lanka are traffic congestion, environmental
pollution, increase of traffic accidents, poor public transport system, and weakness of
road networks. An estimated around 830,000 people arrive to the Colombo city from
outside every day. Of this 90% arrive by road and railway carrying approximately 80,
000 or 10% of this demand. The road passengers enter the city through 12 roads with
56% of all passengers arriving by bus and the others arriving by private vehicles such
cars (11%) and motor cycles (5%) and hired vehicles such as three wheelers and vans
(18%). Presently around 15% of the road space is utilized for bus transport even though it
transports 62% of the road passengers. On the other hand, 65% of the road space is used
by private and hired vehicles which in sum total carry only 38% of the passengers. In
addition to the vehicles entering the city, there are a further 250,000 vehicles registered
within the Colombo Municipal Area. Colombo city plays a great role in the economy of
the country. Number of people gathering places such as government and private offices,
shop, factories, hospitals, hotels, schools and the main harbor located within the city.
Therefore most of passengers travelling from western part of Colombo city and other
parts of the country enter Colombo since the important buildings or places above are
situated within Colombo city. It shows in table 2.1

8
Table 2-1: Important Buildings in Colombo City

Features Nos.
Police stations 19
Primary and Secondary Schools 132
Government and Private Banks 97
Government offices 161
Government and private Hospitals 40
Embassies 31
Hotels 13
Theatres & Cinemas 27
Places of Worships 53
Bus Stopping and Terminals(Fort and Pettah only) 10
Railway stations 6
Source: Weerawardana J. 2009

Private transports modes such as motorcycles, three-wheelers, create congestion on the

roads in Colombo city. These congestion issues can be considered as the outputs
produces by attracting people and vehicles for the activities in the city. These outputs
interact within the prevailing socio-economic environmental aspects and produces
negative outcomes. For an example, output such as traffic congestion consumes higher
amount of fuel and also emits higher amount gaseous emissions to the environment
polluting air in surrounding. Therefore it can be concluded that the traffic congestion
leads to two negative impacts of fuel wastage and air pollution in economic and
environmental sectors respectively.

Surveys carried out from 1965 show that until 1995, the annual increase in the number of
persons arriving to the city on a daily basis has been increasing by around 5% annually.
From 1995 it has been observed to decrease signifying that business are moving out of
Colombo city to more accessible suburbs such as Moratuwa, Nugegoda, Kiribathgoda
etc. which are now becoming unplanned commercial areas. These in turn are causing
congestion along the major roads. (Weerawardana J, 2009)

Particularly Parliament Road, Colombo-Kandy Road, Colombo-Galle Road, Colombo-

Negambo Road and Nawala-Narahenpita Road are more congested due to private
vehicles. People use their private vehicles to go to office/business since unavailability of

9
optimum public transport services in these routes. Especially in the peak hour’s traffic
congestion is more complicated.

Motor Cycle
5% 3wheeler
Train
4%
10% Car/Saloon
11%

Utility
14%

Buses
56%

Figure 2.1 Modal shares at CMC boundary

A study identified potential areas for demand on trips attraction and generation within
Colombo municipal council (CMC) and found that on average 30,000 trips in Fort,
25,000 trips in Slave Island, 25,000 trips in Maradan, 20,000 trips in Petah, 20,000 trips
in Colpetty, 20,000 trips in Cinnamon Gardens, 13,000 trips in Borella, 11,000 trips in
Town Hall, and 10,000 trips in Bambalapitiya are made. Many city roads with increasing
traffic demand for road space is clearly seen to have reached critical proportions. One of
the most pervasive and flustering problems of modern transportation is urban traffic

10
congestion; the city of Colombo is no exception. About 200,000 vehicles daily enter the
city by six major roads and bring over 750,000 passengers. Of them 75% travel to the city
for working or business purposes from Colombo’s suburban areas.

2.2 ROAD CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

The road infrastructure in Colombo city and its suburbs are difficult to further widen.
New roads can be built keeping with the rate of demand created by people who are
shifting from public transport to private transport. The inability to obtain the required
land for road space, parking spaces etc. are fast becoming constraints that are severely
restricting the flow of vehicles which far exceed the capacity of the road system to
efficiently discharge the demand. As a result, around 70% of the length of the national
roads within the 10 km radius from the city centre is congested throughout the day. The
average speed on these roads falls below 15 km per hour (Weerawardana J, 2009). At
such speeds, fuel consumption doubles, increasing air pollution as well. On the other
hand, widening or building new roads cannot be accepted as a solution of managing
travel demand since Colombo and its suburb already contains lengthily road network
providing several accessing options for single specific location. It indicates that Sri Lanka
is having CMC and its suburb exceeds overall value of Sri Lanka equaling to a value of
3.48 km/km2. Besides that, the higher population density of 17.40 pop/km2 is also clearly
indicates the difficulty of land acquisitions for further road development activities. (See
Table 2.2) Projects such as the extension of the Dulpication Road, widening and
extension of Baseline Road and Marine Drive have clearly illustrated the difficulties in
land acquisition in a city which is both historic and densely built up.

11
Table 2.2 Road density comparison

Country Road Density population Population Density

(km/km2) (km/1000) (1000 /km2)
Nepal 0.13 0.71 0.18
Pakistan 0.33 1.73 0.19
Bangladesh 0.95 1.01 0.94
Bhutan 0.20 5.71 0.04
India 1.01 2.78 0.36
Sri Lanka 1.61 5.53 0.29
Colombo Metropolitan Region 3.64 2.80 1.30
Colombo District 5.40 1.80 3.00
CMC 3.48 0.20 17.40
Source: Weerawardana J.2009)

Experiencing practical limitations in developing of highways is a common issue

particularly in urban areas. As an alternative solution for this, it is given priority to
increase affectivity and efficiency of the public Transport services. In this context
integration of transport is vital for linking of different modes of transport in order to cater
the passenger demand for the outside city centers. Integrate public transport mean high
transits modal share with a seamless service using two or more modes. Therefore it is
necessary to have a proper management of present travel demand for the Colombo city.

2.3 PRESENT STATUS OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN SRI LANKA

The present system of bus transport operations and railway services of law reliability
have to be improved to a status wherein they form a realistic choice to those who own a
private vehicle. In this context management restructuring of the bus sector as well as
introduction of premium level valued added rail and bus services will be a priority. It will
also include the provision of priority for public transport which is a wide spread policy
adopted by many cities in their attempt to reduce traffic congestion and environment
pollution. It also requires reducing the number of excessive vehicles, Re-routing and
terminating some bus routes away from city centers.

12
Attracting higher amount of vehicles and passengers leads to the traffic congestion on the
roads as well as the inter-modal congestion in public transport modes. These congestion
issues can be considered as the outputs produced by attracting people and vehicles for the
activities in the city.

2.4 PRESENT ROUTE NETWORK & RE-ROUTING

Colombo city is served by provincial and inter-provincial bus services operated by

private and state sector buses. Both types of state sector buses are operated by Sri Lanka
Transport Board while inter and intra provincial private sector buses are operated by
individual private operators under the supervision of National Transport Commission and
Western Province Passenger Transport Authority respectively. At present 166 of inter
provincial bus routes and 98 of intra provincial bus routes enters to Fort and Petah area
(Weerawardana J, 2009).

Even though the Colombo serving buses and their capacities were increased in last few
decades, it is clearly observed that both private and public sector operators still have not
been able to handle the increasing travel demand especially in the peak periods of the
day. In addition to the demand increase, being private sector operators are highly profit
oriented, all the buses serving Colombo in peak periods are highly congested giving
unpleasant experiences for the travelers. Furthermore road revenue conflict among
operators adds higher degree of contribution for the traffic congestion as well. These
issues confirmed that increasing passenger carrying capacities is not a solution for the
inherited problems of the bus services at present. Map 2.2 shows the Colombo
metropolitan region rail and bus road network.

13
Figure 2.2: Colombo Metropolitan Region Rail and Bus Road network

2.5 BEHAVIOR OF BUS & RAIL PASSENGERS

Following issues on Bus/Rail passenger travel have been interviewed by university of

Moratuwa in 2007

Identified issues reflect the behavior of passengers coming to CMC.

• 53% of bus passengers and 37% of rail passengers are coming to Fort/Petah to
have a transfer to a bus going out of CMC. Greater of these travelers are coming

14
 to city during the day time. It reveals that there is a demand to decentralize long
distance bus services.
• Majority of trips between CMC and outside CMC can be considered as Home
Based Work & schooling trips and travelers of 43.2% by bus and 46.9% by rail
are having transfers at Petah/Fort from intra & inter provincial services.

2.6 IMPORTANCE OF THE INTEGRATION SYSTEM FOR COLOMBO

METROPOLITAN AREA.

According to the above mentioned circumstances travel demand management is

acceptable. Under that situation upgrading of public transport is very important. The
present system of optimal bus transport operations and low level reliability of railway
services have to be improved. Integration system of bus and rail would also include the
provision of priority for public transport which is a wide spread policy adopted by many
cities in their attempt to reduce traffic congestion and environmental pollution. A better
transport integration system would lead to reduce the private vehicles entering in to the
Colombo city. Then the demand for parking spaces as well as traffic congestion in main
cities will be reduce. It also encourages reducing the number of excessive vehicles, re-
routing and terminating some bus routes away from city centers.

Integrated public transport needs following basic factors in order to better

implementation.

• Closely interlinked modes.

• Compatible routes and time tables
• Frequent service.
• Well planed implementation of Bus and Rail Integrated system.
• Efficient infrastructure facilities for quick transit.

Passengers who use rail don’t have direct bus service from railway stations and hence
they have to walk for buses to go to their destinations. The main travel modes with in
Colombo City are bus and rail. Among those buses are divided in to private and public.

15
Three wheelers are used as a para transit mode in Sri Lanka. Commonly they need to
transit one to another in the process of the journey and the average distance from such
railway station to bus halt are more than 100 m in sub urban areas in Sri Lanka.

From Moratuwa to Fort, there are 12 stations. Among those stations Lunawa, Mt Lavenia
and Angulana have very little boarding and alighting because no travel facilities from
these points to destination and homes as well. Aftermath is spending more money, time
and distance. Almost every transit points no direct relationship between other transport
modes. One of the important rail bus transit points in Colombo City is Bambalapitiya.

Table 2.2: Distance from Stations to Bus as example

Railway Station Distance From Demand Routes from the rail

Stations to Bus passengers
Stop in Meters
Dehiwala 250 119,163,176,183
Wellawatta 300 141
Bambalapiiya 150 154,177,104,112,
Kollupitiya 100 140,177,175,
Dematagoda 50 178,152,135,104,140,193,154,143
Narahenpita 500 141,103,135,178,
Homagama 600 128,149
Nugegoda 100 176,183, ,119,163,159

With regards the distance between the Rail station and near Bus stop, Dematagoda seems
a significantly short distance between the Rail station and near Bus stop. According to the
table 2.2 rail passengers have to walk more than 100 miters to distance to take a bus for
various bus routes from the stations.bus stops to catch the bus However from reason past
bus services have been launched from Bambalapitiya, Kollupitiya and Dehiwala stations
for passengers convenience. But it is not a proper rail bus integration system.
Bambalapitiya station is one of the major transit points of the coastal railway line. Study
has been already conducted at every station from Dehiwala to Fort. If there is a good rail
bus integration service, people could use rail as well. It would be some kind of solution
for Galle road traffic congestion. Since the distance between station and surrounding bus
stop seems to be less than others Dematagoda station is the ideal place to initiate steps

16
improving rail and bus integration service. This will reduce number of passenger travels
by private transport modes. The study also focused to see the importance of bus and rail
integration for passengers who travel by rail and bus. Generally there are routes
originates from the center of the city in sub urban and urban cities in Colombo. Most of
the time there are no direct coordination with rail and bus. In generally integrated system
would help to improve the accessibility of the area and in any country it can be developed
a public transport system providing of better integrated transport.

Following state control authorities and private operators involved in public transportation
service in Sri Lanka. But those agencies have almost no coordination with each other and
do operations isolate manner. Time tabling and operation schedules of each authority can
be given as common examples.

• Railway Department
• Passenger Transport Authority & National Transport Commission
• Sri Lanka Transport Board

This kind of disciplines may often problematic to commuter and hence faced number of
inconveniences. Commuters face lot of problems at the stations. No time table display, no
transit facilities, No toilet etc. The fact that Rail and buses do not origin or terminate at a
same platform emphasizes the necessity of integration of these two modes.

There are 12 stations from Moratuwa to Fort. Except at Fort there are no user facilities at
other stations. There are 19 stations from the main line from Maradana to Veyangoda.
Out of that Maradana and Dematagoda stations located within Colombo Municipal
Council area.

This phenomenon is not particular to Colombo as most cities experience similar problems
when public transport fails to match the improved quality of transport and complexity of
mobility needs that arise with increasing incomes of the population. This can be observed
when one compares the relative deterioration in the comfort of bus or rail transport when
compared with the ever increasing features in private vehicles. Even though buses have
increased in number, the quality of service, reliability, conditions of bus stops and

17
terminals have continued to deteriorate. There are two types ticketing system for bus and
rail passengers. Long walking distances to railway station to bus stop. Therefore
commuters have to spend more time for the buss.

18