The Alsa station near Guomao. Photos: Guo Yingguang and courtesy of Ignacio Bethencourt Colubi

By Gao Fumao

A shiny, clean and comfortable bus station in downtown Beijing could actually make you want to take a long-distance bus ride out of the capital. Kitted out by Spanish-based bus transport company Alsa, the station, near Guomao, has the kind of comforts usually alien to bus travel (I speak as a veteran of such travel nationwide), including a café with shiny table tops and real (but affordable) coffee. The airy esplanade also features several ATM machines and a glass-walled restaurant serving value meals. Smokers are politely consigned to a smoking room, while passengers can while away waiting time by taking out their laptops for the free Wi-Fi coverage.

Sprawling, noisy

Chinese bus stations are often sprawling, cold places with fetid bathrooms and noisy, abrupt announcements on a bullhorn. There's none of the bilingual intercom announcements or gate-side scheduling screens of the Alsa station. Off the bus, Alsa has set new standards for bus stations. Inside the company's Beijing terminal under a giant clock tower bearing the company's logo, there's spacious seating, and real café au lait for a modest 10-yuan ($1.49).

Striding about the station on one of his regular friendly inspection tours, Ignacio Bethencourt Colubi remembers the fuss his bus company, Alsa, caused when it pulled out of Beijing on a wintry day in 1994, on the road to Tianjin. Spanish-owned Alsa was revolutionizing the business of bus travel in China by being the first to run on a schedule. "Normally buses ran when they filled up…It could take days for a bus to leave," recalls Colubi, whose nearly two decades-long stint as head of operations at Alsa China is coming to an end this year.

Alsa changed China's intercity bus business with timetables: Its buses departed on scheduled time, full or not. "Our partners said it was crazy… that we would lose money." They didn't. One of Alsa's joint ventures Beijing Xian Long - Alsa Passenger Transport Co, Ltd has grown from two routes and 15 vehicles in 1994 to 15 lines and 74 buses today.

Given that Alsa is one of Europe's biggest bus companies, and one of the best known names on Spanish highways, it's not unusual surely that the Madrid-based firm saw something in China's bus travel market when it ran its first buses out of Tianjin in the early 1990s. China was beginning a highway building spree so it seemed logical to pick up business moving the enormous population around, says Colubi, who is looking forward to retirement in Spain after two decades keeping Alsa's Chinese buses running on time.

As he takes me around the parking bays a certain lack of panic or pushing suggests local travelers appreciate his more timely approach. Fifteen years since getting that first imported Volvo coach onto the road, Colubi oversees 500 buses on China's roads. Alsa, explains Colubi, focuses on Northern provinces less serviced by bus and railways than the country's wealthier south. Hence it has several buses a day from Beijing to Dongying in Shandong Province: Eight hour's ride from the capital, the city, famous for its tire manufacturing, is not yet served by a train line.

Rail advantage

The much-praised improvement of local railways has however hurt Alsa's business elsewhere. A high-speed rail line connecting the capital and Tianjin to the east has pulled passengers from Alsa's Beijing-Tianjin route, long a staple piece of the company's business. Colubi believes subsidized tickets give the State-run intercity train an advantage over bus firms: A 30 minute train ride costs 58 yuan per person, while Alsa charges 35 yuan a seat for the two hour ride (45 yuan for its more spacious executive buses with airplane-like seats).

I appreciated his worries when, a few weeks after we talked, I took a scheduled service to Tianjin and regretted being the only passenger on the mid-morning bus - not an efficient use of resources, certainly.

Fast rail isn't the only challenge Colubi worries about. Alsa's expansion is limited by the "Administration Regulation of Foreign Investment Highway Transportation Industry," a 2001 rule which compels foreign bus operators to take a minority (maximum 49 percent) stake in a joint venture with a local partner. Local joint venture partners - Alsa has seven across the country - help line up licenses for Alsa's routes out of Beijing and its other hubs, including Shijiazhuang and Shanghai.

Alsa has few foreign peers in China. Singapore Mass Rail Transport (SMRT), the city-state's largest transport operator, this summer spent 320 million yuan on a 49 percent stake in Zona, the Shenzhen subsidiary of National Express Transportation Group Co, a private Chinese bus company. Colubi says the deal is an exception rather than the rule due to the difficulties in getting licenses for new routes.

Why did the government let him in the first place? My answer comes when Colubi gives me a look around the garage behind Alsa's Beijing bus station. Foreign firms like Alsa bring investment and know-how to train locals. Just as Alsa mechanics train local counterparts the company's Chinese drivers also traveled to Alsa's school for drivers, in Spain. Taught how to run buses efficiently and cleanly, they came home to train company drivers to save on petrol and look smart. Wearing neat company-issue shirts and ties, drivers abide by Alsa etiquette, which forbids staff from smoking while driving.

Wrenching

Aside from ticket sales on its buses Alsa also takes fees from other companies using its bus stations. A large garage at the back of its Beijing station also brings in cash: Wrench-wielding mechanics here move about under the bellies of buses. Other bus firms, explains Colubi, seek out Alsa mechanics, trained by experts who visit regularly from Alsa's Spanish headquarters.

Given such training, Alsa offers passengers a more comfortable ride. Alsa's 44-seat buses have individualized entertainment systems, sparing passengers the TV-blaring cheap comedies on most Chinese long-haul buses. There's also a bathroom aboard each bus. Alsa doesn't run sleeper buses, popular on China's long-haul routes: Colubi thinks they're unhygienic.

Given the competition from fast trains and cheaper plane tickets Colubi has had to run a tight ship. But he's been able to save too: Alsa no longer has to import buses from Europe (it originally ran a fleet of Volvos) because local firms like King Long and Higer today make better buses, explains Colubi.

Even while encumbered by local investment rules, he reckons Alsa is on (a long) road to success. China's imposters have already passed their judgment: Colubi lately approached an Alsa bus near Shijiazhuang, surprised to find one of the company's vehicles off its normal route. A small-time bus operator had painted the Spanish firm's livery on his machine. "He said we had a good reputation, so he copied our logo."

gaofumao@globaltimes.com.cn