Public Transportation in Brunei and London

by Ayeen Jafery. 

To be honest, public transportation in Brunei is quite limited. Even though, over the years we could see some improvements being made, there is still more room for Brunei to make the public transport more popular to the locals and tourists. As you can see, they are mostly only used only by the foreigners who reside in Brunei and is not favoured by the locals. This is because they are limited. There is still much to be done to improve  and promote public transportation in Brunei. Just imagine Brunei having these MRTs, won't you want to start using it? 

Public transportation over here are made up of mostly taxis and bus services. Taxis are scarce and limitedly available at hotels, shopping centres, the Brunei International Airport and in the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan. As for buses, there are only six bus routes in daily operation in Bandar Seri Begawan - the Eastern Line, the Southern Line, the Western Line, the Central Line, the Circle Line and the Northern Line. The buses are purple in colour and quite small and mainly used by foreigners. From what I had observed, most Bruneians do not use these services. Do you ever wonder why? Are they really easily available? 

It's time for us to think about why this is happening. Public transportation should make our daily lives easier but in Brunei, most people drive their own cars and get caught in traffic jams! When I was in London recently, I noticed that their public transportation was highly popular amongst the locals and tourists alike. Same goes for other countries for that matter! 

In London, the main source of public transport is the Underground or tubes as they call it and they are really reliable. It’s a very extensive network and you can go to all places in London quickly. The tubes are properly labelled so it is easy to reach your desired destinations without getting lost. For example, at the front of the train, at the platform indicator, it will show the ultimate destination of the train and when the train will be arriving. The tubes arrive at every station in a timely manner. The stations also have maps to show you the all the alternative routes you can use to reach your destination. Each tube station is within easy distance with each other and if you are confused or if by mistake, you use the wrong tubes, you can always get off the tubes at any one station and change your direction. The tube attendants are very helpful too so there would be no problem at all. On top of that, the tube stations are decorated really beautifully and is very clean. In terms of price, Londoners usually opt to buy tube tickets called Oyster Cards where you can top up and use instead of having to buy a ticket all the time.

Buses are also quite reliable in London and they're quite cheap. In some areas where tubes are not available, we could hop into buses. The bus stops are well signposted and each stop gives information about all the bus destinations, alternative stops nearby for other buses, frequency, etc. The buses in London are easily identifiable because they are red in colour and two stories, it is known famously as Double Decker buses. They are also quite nice to ride especially on the top deck where we could see London's beautiful scenaries. There are night buses and 24 hour buses in London where it generally runs all through the night and from hourly to 4 rides an hour, seven nights a week. So it is so easy to look for public transport in London compared to Brunei where buses are available during the day only. 

Apart from tubes and buses, there are also taxis in London. Although taxis are less popular due to the high cost, they are also beautifully decorated and the taxi drivers are very friendly and helpful. 

In conclusion, to be successful in promoting the public transportation in Brunei, it is very important to know what is wanted and favoured by the people. The most important thing is knowing how to change the mindset of the people so that they could accept the idea of using these services and the only way to achieve that is to have proper and reliable service and on top of that, to give good promotions to the people so they would start to get used to the idea.

Revised by Joanne Lim.

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