Will new bus company solve transport mess?

Last Wednesday, President Museveni oversaw the finalisation of plans between Kampala Capital City Authority and METU Bus Industries to assemble and manufacture buses that will be deployed to ease transport in Kampala Metropolitan Area.
For a bit of background, Mr Metu Katabazi, the proprietor of the assembly plant in Kasese, is to invest $50 million (about Shs177.3b) in the next five years and build capacity to manufacture more than 100 buses including the  four metre city buses, 4.8 to 18 metre long buses for rapid transport.
In our story of July 23 titled, “What awaits new bus company”, Mr Katabazi says, by producing buses and trains, they will lessen crowds and reduce boda bodas.  
That we are able to assemble vehicles is a good thing and should be supported but to dream up another city bus transport system before correcting the wrongs of the past and present is ridiculous.
 It is clear from our past that such grand plans need more than funding.  Author Chaim Potok said it best, “…everything has a past. Everything – a person, an object, a word, everything. If you don’t know the past, you can’t understand the present and plan properly for the future.”
One who is serious about the success of this project should start by asking what the real problems of our transport system are and whether a new bus company is what we need to solve them.
Another pertinent question would be, does our infrastructure favour the highly coveted bus transport system? What do we need to put in place for it to work, also, why did the pioneer bus project that started off with lofty aspirations come to a miserable end?
Have the causes of its failure been resolved?
 Have we instituted special lanes for buses, cyclists and motorcyclists, and the issue of the narrow roads?   What about the already existing transport operators and service providers, what becomes of them? There are many unresolved issues around transportation in Kampala Metropolitan area.
One might say that these will be dealt with while the new bus company sets up or assembles its buses but what if the outcomes are more complicated than predicated and need a different solution, what happens then? What happens to all that money invested in the new project?
We hope to God that it will work out well because opening the market to more players means better services and after all, who in their right mind doesn’t want an organised and affordable transport system. But this is too important to bank on just hope. We must be sure.