Hambantota aims to be a ‘public transport games’ in 2018

Plans will leave sustainable transport legacy, says Bid Committee

Sri Lanka’s Hambantota 2018 bid to host the Commonwealth Games will deliver a ‘Public Transport Games,’ those behind the large-scale investment in infrastructure in the fast-developing city have revealed.

In a Games Transport Strategy that builds on historically low car use in Sri Lanka, local and Games-specific public transport during the Games will be free of charge for ticket holders on the day of their events. It will revolve around an upgraded, high-capacity public bus and rail service and Games-time Park & Ride (P&R) shuttles that promise easy access to competition venues.

Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Hambantota 2018 Organising Committee Co-Chairman, says: “Our concept is for a public transport Games, with 100 per cent of spectators arriving at venues by public transport. We will provide spectators with a reliable, comfortable, safe and efficient connection.”

P&R services will be provided for all arrivals at three main surface transport hubs and airport and rail stations.

Spectators can access the Games Park in less than 35 minutes from all dedicated hotel clusters via Games-time shuttle services. And private car use will be discouraged, with non-Games vehicles kept away from the Games Park to reduce delays and congestion.

With the new Hambantota International Airport complete, over 60 per cent of Commonwealth nations and territories will be served by a direct flight or ‘one-hub transfer,’ adds Cabraal.

His comments come with now just two weeks until the host city is announced at the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) general assembly in St Kitts & Nevis on 11 November.

“Spectators arriving by road, rail, or landing at Hambantota International Airport will be directed to one of five Commonwealth Games Transport Hubs,” Cabraal explains. “Here they will be taken to the Games Park by a fleet of P&R shuttles and dropped at one of two Games Park Spectator Transport Malls to the north and south of the Games Park; each is within walking distance of the venues. This will ensure that there are no private spectator vehicles near the Games Park itself.”

The plans also show that a dedicated ‘Bus Corridor’ will give priority to buses – and cycle routes throughout the region will connect to storage facilities in the Spectator Transport Malls.

A Games-time Transport and Traffic Control Command Centre, operated under the administration of the Sri Lanka Police Service, will be responsible for real-time traffic management and route planning to limit interruptions and delays. An operations room at the Games Park will link with offices in key cities such as Colombo, Kandy, Kurunegala, Galle and Matara.

The system will also link to the two airports, together with the Games Security Command and Control Centre. Cabraal, also Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, adds that the enhanced fleet of buses will form part of the improved national bus service after the Games; 1,000 new, air conditioned buses will be procured in advance of 2018. It is just part of what he sees as both an economically and environmentally sustainable transport strategy that will deliver benefits in 2018 and beyond.

“By fully utilising public transport, we will create a legacy of future public transport use,” he says. “The Games will help make P&R, bus and rail the modes of choice for the future, limiting growth in car use across the Southern Province. It will deliver a positive legacy for the whole region.”