Chasing Cars post election style

With the dust of the national election having settled down and washed away by the monsoonal rains towards the South China seas, one would expect all to be back to business as usual: enforcing the traffic law by using an intricate system of fines. Dream on!

• Cambodia Life, a free Khmer / English / Japanese magazine, mentions in it's latest issue (vol 2, issue 15) amongst others ('Preah Vihear Temple Temporary Closed') the arrival of a brand new metered taxi firm in Phnom Penh.

  'Global Taxi has agreed a 20 year contract that will eventually see up to 300 taxis serving the Kingdom's capital. 12 taxis will arrive on the streets straight away, with 48 more to be introduced later this year.
  ...
  high ranking Phnom Penh Govenor Kep Chuktema said "the presence of the meter is proof that Phnom Penh has improved" '.

  Does that mean the opposite equally applies? That the many taxi companies, who have failed in the past, are proof that Phnom Penh is not improving?
  Anyway the company took out a page size ad, so maybe it's just useless company profiling.
  Why would they call the company Global Taxi?

• Khmer 440 have more on discussion on the (same?) metered taxi's. The discussion seems to move away from the main subject blaming tuk-tuk's ('They cram up the streets, block or take all the good car parks around all the major markets and the riverside') and Lexus driving general's wife's (and daughters) for causing all of Phnom Penh's traffic woes ('please start making generals wives take Lexus lessons, they are the scariest shit on the roads'). Pax though does have an actual experience to relate:

  'I took one the other day at the suggestion of a Cambodian shophand on how to get my tv back to my place. Brand new clean car, sober driver, full blast cold air condition, cost me 2.25 from Psar Themei to far Toul Kork. I thought it was great. The time meter only stops if your not moving at all, so even in slow traffic you aren't getting charged for the time'.

  So who knows, they might be onto something?

• Changes to traveling in Cambodia. The notorious Siem Reap - Thai border road, despite some upgrading, has seen it's usual monsoon troubles:

  'In April, dry season, I took 2 1/4 hours to do the whole stretch. Record time for me. The last 50km from Sisophon to Poipet are nearly completely paved. Since the rains have started it's taken friends between 3 and 6 hours'.

  Thanx Sunsan on Khmer 440.
  Meanwhile on the developments on the Koh Kong - Sihanoukville sector. Henning Wessel (on ToA) reports:
  

  'The regular daily boat service has been discontinued between Sihanoukville and Koh Kong (it now stops in Koh Sdach, about half the distance. Careful, it's an island, onward travel is up to the individual). The operator has succumbed to the stiff competition posed by bus companies that have begun service on the road since the last bridge has been opened and the bad weather on the coast. He also said the boat would be available for charter and I wouldn't at all be surprised if it recommences in the high and dry season at an inflated price as a tourist attraction'. Well, we'll just have to get used to inflation or take a bus. I always thought traveling via Koh Kong was a rip-off.

• While the debate rages here on the merits / demerits of the various 'so-called' transport systems in Phnom Penh, the citizens of the City of Angels (Krung Thep) are profiting from their free rides. However, The Nation reports complaints about waiting times and packed buses (naturally if there are free).

  'Other issues involved dangerous driving and the risk of groping, pickpockets and fights between rival vocational students'.

  Well, thank god we won't have any of that over here!
  

Chasing Cars not so often anymore

• Has anyone noticed? It's election time! That means the party in control can use cars without license plates which are an apparent improvement of cars with military, state or police license plates. Details from this article on KI Media. Seems to be all the same to Crossing Cambodia.

• From someone called Tynan (Scottish?) an extensive coverage of a recent rail journey from Battambang to the capital. Photo's are available here. He (or is it a she?) seems impressed:

  'Calling it a passenger train is a bit of a misnomer, though. ...The train is slow, probably the slowest train in the world. The fastest I clocked it with my GPS was 17kph. ...
  The journey from Battambang, a city reasonably close to the Thai border, to Phnom Penh takes four hours by air conditioned bus. I've been on the train for 17 hours now and there's been no word on when we'll finally arrive. The official timetable claimed it would be 5 hours ago. ....
  We once stopped unexpectedly because one of the four car's bumpers had jumped onto another one's'.
  

• Another unexpected train stop occurred the last week:

  'A train for transporting oil collapsed on Saturday at 12: 30 p.m., destroying at least three homes along its rail way in Tuol Kok district’s Boeng Kok I commune. Fortunately, no one injured of the accident and it did not contain oil in the time, or it could cause fire. The victims demanded for compensation, but both local authorities and police did not know the company deal with the case'.

• The same derailment though seems to have drawn some attention: some of the victims are continuing their pursuit of compensation. More intriguing for Tynan:

  'S'im Tang, 63, whose house was flattened in the derailment, complained that the train had sped through the neighborhood on an unsafe track'.

  Must of been at least 20 km/hr, then!

• As if the railways haven't enough headaches, a cement truck

  'crashed with a running train'.

  The report states that there were no injuries, but not what the possible damage could of been. The police though blame the railways:

  'The train officer should have given sign to travelers when the trains crossed the road, he [Angkor Chay police chief Keo Vibol] added'.

• More unexpected stops, this time with fatalities:

  'A Korean driver killed five members of one Cambodian family [traveling on one motorbike] while speeding under the influence of alcohol [and driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, police said Monday'.

  This quote from KI Media. Khmer News.com refers to a
  

  'brutal traffic accident'.

• Prices are going up, Vietnam is preparing more measures to stop smuggling:
  

  'Under the ministry’s decision, border gas station customers will not be able to fill containers with fuel'.

• Despite fuel prices going up, transport prices will only change next month, surprisingly after the elections:

  'The Phnom Penh municipality held a meeting on Friday with the transportation and the parking lot owners to keep the price of the transport price on the campaign as well as the election day'.

Cambodian Officialdom on Planes, Trains and Assorted

Sometimes reporting on transport concerns in Cambodia has much to do with 'Aladdin and his magic lamp", Alladin being Cambodian officials, the lamp representing the 'idea'.

Take for example a number of messages the last week.
Case 1: Cambodia to set up new national airline
As reported all over the world, but here linking to the article on the KI Media website. The essence: Cambodia's government strikes a deal with an Indonesian company allowing it to operate a national flag carrier in return for a significant amount of the profit.

Two problems in this story, they are 'national' and 'profit'. The current situation in Cambodian skies is that there is no government owned airline (though there are other Cambodian companies such as Royal Khmer and President Airlines), a unique factor which has attributed to the overall growth of the tourism sector, one of the main pillars of Cambodia's economy. With the absence of vested (national and thus political) interests, the Cambodian government has been encouraging as much business as possible. the more the merrier. Nearly everyone can fly in to / out of Phnom Penh and whether they make a profit or not is not the Cambodia's government's concern. The one exception is the Bangkok - Siem Reap sector which is run as a monopoly by Bangkok Airways, condoned by the current Cambodian government.

So why now try to set up a national flag carrier? With the significant recent growth of tourism, the perception has been that Cambodia's economy fails to profit sufficiently. One problem is the lack of national production meeting tourists demand. As such nearly everything is flown in, leaving just construction and employment in tourist services as significantly contributing to the Cambodian economy. To address this 'leakage' problem, the idea apparently is to get an airline in place and tax the profits. One problem is that even if profits are forthcoming (a big problem for other flag carriers in Southeast Asia) accounting procedures in Cambodia are hardly established meaning that the Cambodian government may well see nothing of it's share of the profits. Even though they have a substantial part of the airline, the aircraft will probably be leased, so the government is getting 51% of the airlines assets which equals zero, which in Crossing Cambodia's calculation is still zero.

That said, in the meantime there may be the possibility to commandeer seats or even a whole aircraft so as to get officials kids/wives to school/shopping in Bangkok / Hong Kong, a phenomena which has arisen in recent years just over Cambodia's eastern border.

But with the current 'open skies' policy, there is hardly any room for extra flights (i.e. there is perfect competition). This implies that these policies must change so as to allow the national carrier to access profitable routes (to / from Thailand and / or China) or (so as not too frighten the current carriers) to make sure any future growth in flights to Cambodia is awarded to the national flag carrier.

Even though some questions remain (how big will the flag carrier be?), with the signature of Peter Sondakh, the Cambodian government seems to have a guarantee that future payments to the state will take place. Mr. Sondakh is an Indonesian with quite some experience and very deep pockets: his company is currently trying to take over the Indonesia flag carrier, Garuda. However, Indonesia has in the past had massive problems with corruption as well as having a dismal record in regulating it's skies, not necessarily aspects which would look good on a potential airline's investor's report card. With Cambodia's recent past in aviation littered by accidents and failed airlines one might wonder whether or not this investment will assist Cambodia at all.

But one thing that does stick is that in the run-up to elections, playing to nationalistic sentiments surely must pay off. But whether it makes economic sense?

Case 2: French company plans to operate trams in Cambodia
The full story here. The essence. Big French muliti-billion company (Alsthom) devise plan to have it's products up and running in Cambodia. It impresses local officials who will now support it. No mention is made of who will pay for this.

Possibly this latter, is part of the overall strategy: here we are, we will solve all your plans, you just have to start to yearn /crave for it, then cough up some money (in case no money is forthcoming maybe we can ask French 'gouvernement' for some bridging finance, possibly with some EU money somewhere along the track). Whether or not it solves the problem is entirely besides the question, who doesn't want to impress all and sundry (including voters) with a swish train / tram / lorrie which does not seem to cost anything?

Just a few months back, the Thai were here proclaiming how their Skytrain would be up and running in the near future.

Possibly both the Thai and the French should heed the experience of the Japanese who couldn't even get a bus system running within Phnom Penh. Let's hope the Chinese can get a reliable taxi system working (should not be beyond them).

So should we not dream? Yes, no problem with that, but current problems with traffic congestion are simply due to the lack of adhering to a simple language of red light means stop. Last Tuesday evening Crossing Cambodia plied through Monivong Boulevard during rush hour while it was totally packed, but only due to the fact that the main crossings were blocked and blocked again. Get everyone to stop when lights are red, go when green and the need for sophisticated systems of transport will not be required at least for the near future.

If starting now with a city bus system , this would be effective in 1-2 years time and in 5 years time look for a mass transport system, preferably underground, that's how it is done internationally, even in Bangkok and Paris!

Case 3: Dong Thap [province in vietnam] approves road link to Cambodia. The link, the essence: with just 4.5 million dollars this Vietnamese province will build a road, basically for their own satisfaction. Where's the money coming from?[everybody suddenly takes an interest in their shining shoes and /or are all the lights on?]

Case 4:Cambodia asks China, India, Japan to help improve rural projects
The link, the essence of the stories: Hun Sen (the ever-serving Cambodian PM) needs to develop the country fast (after all elections are coming up in six months) so he now requests China and Japan for hand-outs. What the Chinese get out of the deal Crossing Cambodia hardly knows, but they tend to look well after themselves (as do all other 'donors'). With Toyota cars making up half of the standard Cambodian car-park, their 'donation' will always reap handsome rewards.

But what do the cases have in common? A lack of vision, a lack of will to tackle the problems themselves, a absolute disregard to finances ('Cambodia is such a poor country, please forgive us our debts') and a faith in piecemeal approaches to overall economic and social problems. It all seems to be tied in with power, the power to have and how to keep this power. Well, as long as it's not Crossing Cambodia's money, it's not my problem. What does worry Crossing Cambodia is that in the event of an adverse economic climate elsewhere (the states?) how at all will the country survive? On nearly all aspects Cambodians rely and continue to rely on having absolute faith in the goodness of foreigners / foreign countries to dole out money to address their simple problems. In Thailand you win elections promoting self-sufficiently, here presumably by passing the bill on to future generations, be they Cambodian or foreigners. Let's hope that the money tap continues to be open for a long, long time, while the local politicians start rubbing up the lamp once more!

Cambodia's main railroad from phnom Penh to the coast!

The poitical party electioneering of the one handed ...

A CPP supporter looking to win votes for April 1 local elections