History of Sri Lanka Transport Board

The setting up of the limited liability omnibus companies by the British around 1940 was the first meaningful step in regularising public passenger transport in the country.

Controlling legislation was strengthened in 1951 with the introduction of a system of quantity and quality licensing, similar to what then applied in Great Britain.

Buses packed to capacity were driven at a terrific speed, even on bends on the steep roads of the Hatton-Adam's Peak route.

In 1957, the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna government led by Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike decided on the nationalisation of bus services.

The creation of a single nationalised entity made possible long distance operations and running buses on a large number of rural routes.

The CTB was given a good start under the Chairmanship of Vere de Mel of the Ceylon Civil Service (and of Quickshaws, the private taxi company).

In 1964 Anil Moonesinghe of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) became Minister of Communications, in overall charge of the transport, including the CTB.

He started the Central Workshops at Werahera, just outside Colombo, which built bus bodies out of aluminium and carried out engine repairs and overhauls.

[3] He was in the middle of negotiating with the Fiat company to build buses in Sri Lanka when the government of which he was a minister fell in 1965.

The incoming United National Party regime recruited a large number of political supporters as staff, so that the hitherto favourable employee/bus ratio increased and made the CTB a loss-making institution.

The pending agreement with Fiat, which would have enabled Sri Lanka to export buses to China, was scrapped and a deal was made with British Leyland instead.

In 1970, the UF United Front government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike was returned to power, with Leslie Goonewardene of the LSSP as Minister of Transport.

Anil Moonesinghe would dress in a bush shirt and trousers and operate as a one-man flying squad to catch errant bus crews in the act, lying in wait in his metallic blue Volkswagen Variant or his Citroën 2CV at places like Dematagoda Junction to prowl on them.

Moonesinghe planned a multi-faceted approach to the management of the institution: training and skills enhancement, scientific methodology and discipline were considered to be three main requisite characteristics.

The managerial competency and skill of the CTB staff was upgraded, and several batches of management trainees were recruited to all its major functional areas.

J. Diandas, a well known commuter representative and rights activist (as well as a specialist in transport) was made an advisor, and consultations with consumer bodies were frequently carried out.

As an emergency measure, several hundred BMC WF lorry chassis intended for goods transport were taken over by the CTB and converted into buses.

Dudley Wijesiri, a brilliant young manager, was put in charge of the unit tasked with taking workers' self-management forward.

Leslie Gunawardena and Anil Moonesinghe were preparing the next step up the workers' self-management ladder: the Board of Directors was to be reconstituted with half the members to be elected by the Employees' Councils, with the Chairman holding the balance.

As a consequence of all these, the reliability of operations increased and the commuters could rely on (i) the time tables, (ii) the first and last trips on the routes schedules, (iii) courtesy and promptness of service (iv) cleanliness of buses and premises, (v) courtesy and disciplined conduct of the staff and, most importantly (vi) safe and accident-free operation.

Buses in running condition were condemned as unusable and sold to backers of the ruling United National Party at low prices.

The partially constructed new CBS building, which had been built with funds generated by the CTB, was handed over to the Urban Development Authority.

A series of inadequately thought out plans were put into operation, notably the 'Green Circle Line' - scrapped within five years.

The road discipline of these operators, many of whom had political backing, was almost non-existent, but commuters, faced with a state transport system now on the verge of collapse, had no option but to travel on them.

Scarcely a day passed without a letter in the press complaining about overloading, excessive speeds, dangerous driving, rudeness and overcharging on the private buses.

The cluster companies did not suffer as much bad publicity, as they endeavoured to observe regulatory requirements and offered a nationwide, if thinly spread service.

[5] In July 2007, it was announced that steps had been taken to increase the SLTB bus fleet from 4,200 to 5,000 within the year, by importing engines to put sidelined buses into operation.