Review of the “Sisu Seriya” School Bus Service

Abstract

School Transport is considered an essential service that provides equitable access to school children who have difficulties in accessing their respective schools. Different school transport systems in countries differ from each other based on their resources and topography. This paper presents a case study conducted on the Sri Lankan School Bus service “Sisu Seriya" initiated in 2005 to provide a sustainable, reliable and safe mechanism for providing State assistance for school transport. It provides bus service at a concessionary rate through a state subsidy to schoolchildren across the country, contracting bus operators in both public and private sectors, engaged for regularly scheduled services through a specific contractual arrangement in which a set of regulatory and safety conditions are stipulated. Sisu Seriya engages over 1,565 buses serving more than 100,000 school children daily. This paper has benchmarked the Sisu Seriya service through a systematic review of global best practices. Initiation of the system, design features, implementation mechanism and monitoring procedures of the Sisu Seriya service and areas for potential improvement are discussed based on its 15 years of operation, while elucidating the distinctive characteristics of the system. It further highlights how the service design has addressed the challenge of resource limitations, inherent to developing countries, through effective utilization of the existing fleet.

Keywords

• sisu seriya
• transport
• school children
• dedicated
• concession
• sri lanka