The Ministry of Transport has decided to introduce a bus transport service without conductors from July 1st, on the instructions of Transport Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardana.

With the new mechanism, the SLTB expects to put an end to the pilfering of revenue by conductors and also operational costs of buses, Minister Dr. Gunawardana said.

“We first run SLTB buses on all expressways without conductors from July 01 as a pilot project. With the success of it, we expect to operate all SLTB buses around the country only with the driver who will oversee the operation of the ticketing machine,’ he said.

Accordingly, tickets will be issued only at the beginning of the journey for SLTB buses plying on expressways.

The decision to issue tickets at the beginning of the journey has been taken after the detection of a racket where fake tickets had been given to 34 passengers on a SLTB bus on the Southern Expressway for the Matara-Makumbura journey for which a ticket costs Rs. 1200.

The Criminal Investigations Department is conducting investigations into the racket.

The Ministry of Transport is also working to introduce e-tickets for all local buses and trains in the next three months.

In Europe, England and other developed countries passenger transport services are operated in least possible staff and buses are run only with a driver. Tickets are issued when the passenger boards the bus from the front door.