Arima bus service hits rock bottom

THE EDITOR: I did not think it was possible for PTSC’s already abysmal Arima service to hit rock bottom, and for it to keep on digging. It has proven me wrong.

I had given PTSC a rest for a while because I was tired of its inability to honour its contract with the paying public by providing a timely bus service.

It was just recently that I restarted trying to use the service. The first thing I noticed was that PTSC added several electronic schedule screens at City Gate, which showed the times buses were supposed to leave. Wow! Things must be looking up. But when I read the Arima all-stops schedule, it stated that the next bus was due to leave at 8 am. This was at 12.05 pm. So much for so-called First World thinking and scheduling.

On January 12, I arrived at the Arima all-stop line at 9.45 am hoping to get the 10 am bus. By 10.15, all other buses came, except the Arima all-stops and the Arima limited-stops.

At 11 am, shockingly, an announcement was made that the next Arima buses would probably be at noon. No announcement was made, however, as to why the 10 am bus did not show up.

At this point the majority of people left the line and ended up in Eastern Main Road maxi-taxis.

It was during this wait for a bus which never came that I had some interesting discussions with my fellow “sufferers” and I was enlightened on several PTSC issues which had long bothered me.

They claimed there is a racket on the Arima route. When a bus does not come, frustrated passengers are then forced to use the maxi-taxis. Ka-ching! Who then benefits financially?

There were two elderly women in the line who related a tale that only the poor would understand. They joined the Arima limited-stops line on January 11 around 8 am and then went to the all-stops line when no bus came. They waited in that line until after noon when an Arima bus finally came.

The lines for the Arima buses are now much longer since maxi-taxi fares increased to $8 at the beginning of December. The Arima all-stops bus fare is $2.50 and the limited-stops fare is $4.

For a person on a fixed salary, paying $5 a day instead of $16 is a huge saving in transport costs. A family of four would pay $64 to a maxi-taxi, and $20 for the all-stops, or $32 for the limited-stops buses, daily.

My heart is saddened when I see the suffering of the children and their parents, who patiently wait for hours for buses, because of uncaring governments whose ministers drive in tax-free luxury vehicles.

It seems there is an inverse relationship between PTSC’s ability to provide Arima buses and the rise in maxi-taxi fares.

The higher the maxi fares, the scarcer the Arima buses.

The Arima service has, noticeably, deteriorated since around November 2017.

PTSC’s most consistent and reliable service is the Chaguaramas bus. The fare is $2 and that bus runs on the dot, every hour on the hour. It is rarely late. How come?

LINUS F DIDIER, Mt Hope