The Iranian connection
CASE STUDY: What we can learn from public transport applications in
the Middle-East republic
WE experienced a range of public transport modes on our visit to one of the largest countries in the world, and possibly one of the most misunderstood.
Iran Air from KLIA to Tehran operates a fleet of old but spacious 747-200s.
The seats were wide and the legroom more than the new generation of planes. There weren’t any personal video screens and USB ports for charging mobile devices but I’d take the spaciousness of those grand 747s any time.
Tehran to Shiraz was an hour’s flight by a more modern Fokker 100. The international airport at Shiraz was relatively new and uncongested. Nice airport to arrive at.
We went by bus from Shiraz to Esfahan, one of the main trading points of the historic Silk Route from Tabriz bordering the Indian sub-continent to the Mediterranean.
There are two kinds of buses for the intercity travel, the VIP buses and the local stage buses. The VIP buses are similar to Malaysia’s express buses and the main brands of chassis are Volvo, MAN and Scania.
Instead of an on-board toilet, the buses have a sleeper compartment for the second driver. The express bus also carries an attendant to distribute the food box – cookies and chocolates – and to check that the luggage is tagged and returned to the rightful owner.
What was interesting was the safety practices of the public service vehicles. The journey from Shiraz to Esfahan was a seven-hour bus ride and we had been told that there would be one stop for lunch and toilet break.
After about two hours, the VIP bus pulled over and joined a park of several other buses and long distance yellow taxis. Ahh – a toilet break, we thought. But the driver just got out and crossed over to a police station with a table-top diary in his hand. After about five minutes, he returned, climbed back to his driver’s seat and resumed the journey.
And this happened twice more before we arrived at Shiraz at 5pm. What was this about? we asked Ali Hoesseini, our guide from Uppersia.
“This is a safety practice. The drivers have to record the journey from start to each intermediate point to prove that they haven’t broken the speed limit. The main driver will drive for about four to five hours and the second driver will do the remaining two to three hours. The speed is between 80 and 90km/h. It depends on the sector,” he said.
True enough, the VIP bus maintained a stately speed on the three-lane highway and the engine purred at a leisurely low rpm.
When we took another long distance VIP bus ride from Esfahan to Tehran, it was a 480km sector on a MAN bus. Again the seats were comfortable recliners and it was the same 2+1 configuration. Two seats on one side of the bus and an individual seat on the other side.
Our guide had booked in advance on the Web and paid cash about 30 minutes before departure. He would call in advance to confirm the bus departure time. On both occasions, our VIP bus schedules were on time.
Tehran has four main bus terminals to serve destinations to the north, south, east and west. The terminals that we used in Shiraz and Esfahan and Tehran were huge, well laid out, clean, hospitable. Malaysia’s new TBS terminal is new and more premium but maybe a 10th of the size of the Shiraz and Tehran bus stations.
On the public toilets we visited in Iran, there are two types – the Iranian toilet and the Western sitting one.
The Iranian toilet is actually the squat type and we don’t know if there is a written history of toilets but from our experience of visiting French castles and Persian palaces, it would appear that the French used chamber pots while the Persians used squat toilets with drainage. And we’re talking about Persian palaces like the 16th century Aliqapoo palace in Esfahan.
All the toilets that we used – and we used more than the normal Iranian because the cold weather (6 to 18-degree C in the day) played havoc with our bladders – worked. They were a bit smelly, but they worked.
They worked because with 3,000 years of civilisation, the Iranian toilet has both a cistern flush system and a hand bidet. When the cistern flush system fails, as is usually the case in Malaysian and Iranian public toilets, it is cleaner because all of them have a hand bidet.
Many things for Malaysian urban authorities to learn from Iran, and this is one practical aspect.
Public transport in Tehran is important because this is one of the largest metropolises in Asia with 12 million inhabitants.
There are six Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes and another three are on the way. BRT’s is a system of bus lanes that runs in the middle of the left and right lanes with stations in the middle. The BRT was pioneered in Curitiba, Brazil, and it is now adapted as a quick and relatively cheap mass rapid transit fix. Closer to home, Jakarta has a BRT and Malaysia’s Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) plans to implement a BRT system.
Tehran’s first line was inaugurated in January 2008. The US$80 million (about RM250 million) line comprises an 18km route in the east-west direction between Tehran-Pars and the Azadi Terminal.
We tried the local stage bus in Tehran. Women are supposed to sit at the back and the men in front. It works generally but there’s nothing hard and fast about it because there are many passengers who want to board and there’s intermingling in the centre of the bus where the entrance’s doors are located. When the bus arrives at the next stop, both men and women disembark through the front door, both sexes mixing thoroughly.
Fares are cheap because of the subsidised fuel and the bus services are operated by several private companies.
About fuel subsidies, each private car has a card that entitles it to 60 litres of RON 85 petrol a month at 4,000 rial (40 sen) a litre. Above that, the price is 7,000 rial. The subsidies are still being cut and the plan is to sell fuel without subsidy eventually because of smuggling, wasteful consumption and the inevitable unsustainability.
Finally, the automotive industry is the second biggest industry in Iran. Almost all the cars here are locally assembled by about 13 companies.
Iran’s auto industry is by far the largest in West Asia and the biggest company is Iran Khodro. It has licences from the major car makers and Peugeot is the leading brand.
China cars and trucks are making a headway, as are Korean cars from Kia and Hyundai.
. This is the second of a two-part report by our editor on his 10-day visit to Iran, one of the largest countries in the world at 1.6 million sq km, by far the biggest population in the Middle East and until the sanctions, one of the four fastest growing.
The Irani
