As a result of reduced working hours coupled with fewer passengers on a daily basis, operators of the Route 47 Bus Park have called for modified accommodation until the COVID-19 curve is flattened. Their request is a revised parking system, which they noted can significantly improve their operation.
Speaking with Guyana Times on Monday, the drivers explained that their bus park can only hold 10 minibuses when parked horizontally. However, by parking diagonally, some 20 buses can be facilitated. The Route 47 buses ply the West Ruimveldt Front and Back roads.
Kenroy Seeley
At present, over 60 buses are plying the route, and with fewer passengers, there is a longer waiting time, resulting in no other alternative for the other bus drivers than to circle around the park until there is a vacant spot.
Since the imposed 06:00h to 18:00h curfew, they have been transporting only eight persons per trip. More importantly, the number of passengers has dwindled significantly.
Kenroy Seeley, who has been operating at the bus park for the past eight years, said the buses need to solicit passengers at the park before leaving to compensate for the operational costs.
The drivers are asking to park diagonally until the COVID-19 pandemic is over
“The situation we face right now is parking. Towards the coronavirus season, we don’t have enough parking for all the buses. Right about now, we fetching eight passengers in a bus, not more than that. So when you go down the road, you don’t get anybody else,” the driver said.
He added, “These buses, they gotta pay instalment, buy tire, buy gas plus we got a family to feed. What we doing for ourselves? This route got about 60 drivers or more. If it is just 10 buses that could hold at the park, everybody gotta run the road round and round. Nobody picking up nothing.”
Presently, they are calling for permission to park diagonally until the coronavirus pandemic is finished. This proposed system will provide much relief, the drivers expressed.
“When the buses turn diagonal at the park, it could hold about 20 buses cause one bus length holding two buses. That’s what we asking of the police just for this season. When the thing gone back to normal, the bus them [will] go back to normal how we used to park and everybody will do that they have to do. It’s not that we fighting for more passenger or we fighting for the road. We just want the accommodation at the park to hold more bus for now till the coronavirus finish.”
Another driver, Gregory Martin, indicated that some persons have also been arrested for parking diagonally at the park, even though it does not obstruct the flow of traffic.
“The hustle is less because we don’t have to fight for passengers to come in the bus. We fulling by turn and by the time one full, another one go in. When the police come and see you park like that, they send we at the station. It’s not safe for people on the bench clustering up cause they don’t have any kind of space in the station. We just asking them to accommodate we with the diagonal parking until the season over,” Martin indicated.
Calls for a comment to the Traffic Chief Linden Isles were futile.
