The Limits of Public Transportation
The residents of Kotahena, especially those who rely on public transportation, would have come across a very noticeable change around the bus stand in front of the Kotahena Commercial Bank. Over the years, the number of ‘102’, ‘112’ and ‘168’ buses at this bus halt standing ready to accept passengers has drastically declined until, currently, it is rare that one would spot a single bus with Kotahena as its source/destination waiting at this stand.
In order to find out about the buses that are available to the public who wish to travel to certain key destinations from Kotahena, an RTI (Right to Information) application was filled out and sent to the Western Province Provincial Road Passenger Transport Authority.
The RTI application inquired how many 102 (Moratuwa to Kotahena) buses, 112 (Maharagama to Kotahena) buses and 168 (Nugegoda to Kotahena) buses are currently allocated for use by the public. Also, as many are known to have experienced long gaps between the departure of a bus and the arrival of the next bus, the Road Passenger Transport Authority was also asked about all scheduled arrival and departure times (from morning to night) for each of these buses.
According to the data provided by the Western Province Provincial Road Passenger Transport Authority, there is currently one available 112 bus and one 168 bus. As for 102 buses, there are presently none in operation.
The 112 departs from the Kotahena bus stand first at 7.45 am and then again at 4.15 pm. Its last turn time from the Maharagama bus stand is 9.15 in the morning. The departure time of the 168 from Kotahena was reported to be 7.30 am, with its last turn time from the Nugegoda stand being 5 pm.
It is worth noting that the time period for which this information was requested from the Road Passenger Transport Authority starts on the 1st of September 2019.
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