By Nicosia Smith
Linden residents say travelling in and around their community is taking a toll on their finances as the transportation fares are “too high” but the providers defend the rates as being reasonable in the light of rising costs.
Since May, many minibus operators had increased their rates by $20, causing the fare to jump from $80 to $100, short drops from $60 to $80 while fares for children increased from $40 and $60 and from $20 to $40.
A Wismar resident who travels at least twice per day to Mackenzie by bus said, “I do not think it reasonable for up here.” This passenger now faces a minibus return fare of $400 per day from $360 as it now costs $100 per passenger to cross the Wismar/Mackenzie Bridge by bus. If she uses the boat service that traverses the Wismar/Mackenzie route, there is an additional $100 return fare, since the new price is $50 per crossing from $40, and $60 after 9 pm.
The woman said too some minibuses are charging an additional $100 to transport passengers from the main road to their residence, and are not going the full distance. She said she prefers to take the short drop hire cars, since they will go the distance, for $100. “I think Linden fare is always too high,” she said, adding that as a parent she wonders how single-parents with school-age children will cope. The woman counts herself lucky as her children have all completed school.
Domestic worker Bibi Nazmoon who has two school-age children, says during the last school term the transportation costs for her secondary school child was $200 per day. Nazmoon said it costs about $500 per day to provide a snack for her daughter and passage to travel to and from her South Amelia’s Ward home to Wismar to attend school. Nazmoon’s other child attends the Amelia’s Ward Primary School and would walk to school. She said it costs about $1,200 per week to travel to and from work. “It ain’t easy,” she said, adding, “Tell me wha you working for…cost of living gonna run people crazy.”
One National Insurance Scheme recipient, who spoke to this newspaper on the condition of anonymity, said besides this benefit she has no other major source of income. The woman said she does not travel as much now because she cannot afford to. She related that residents in Wismar have asked her to visit but with the increased minibus fares it will cost her $400 return from South Amelia’s Ward. “It rough, rough,” she said.
Wayne Clarke a minibus driver for over a decade now, said the new fare structure is now official, although he admitted that minibuses had increased fares since May 1, after government had sanctioned a $20 increase. However, one driver said that the media had sent mixed messages about the official status of the fare increase and different rates had been published. Clarke said in May passengers had responded angrily to the new fares, but after the new fare structure was made official last week, persons are not so reluctant to pay the increase.
School children under 10-years-old are required to pay $40 from $20 he said, explaining that the conductors will be looking at the students’ uniforms to make this determination, while school children above this age will have to pay $60. Even with this stipulation, Clarke said that the school children will give whatever they have and they will “flex” with them as often parents don’t provide their children with the correct fares.
Another minibus driver who operates the Wismar/Mackenzie route said an official from the Minibus Association in Linden needs to inform the public about the new fares. The man said since his bus has no official poster proclaiming the new rates passengers are refusing to pay them. He said some days his bus will have about four good trips but this is inadequate with gasoline prices at over $1,000 per gallon. “I do not see $20 difference gon cause a problem,” the driver said, noting that passengers will pay the increased fares once they can see the fare structure posted in the minibus.
The driver said too the new queuing system employed at the bus park is slow and at the time that this newspaper had spoken to him he had already spent an hour in the line awaiting his turn to pick up passengers. Also, hire cars conducting short drops along the same route as the Wismar/Mackenzie minibuses use the same bus park and compete with the buses. This driver argued that the hire cars should not be allowed to use the minibus park.
Meanwhile, Dutchee Boat Captain Desmond Daniels said with the increase in fares from $40 to $50, “we now as a captain have to pay more to boss man (boat owner).” He noted that now the 6 am to noon shift and the noon to 6 pm shift require a payment of $5,500 per shift from the boat captain, more than $1,000 more. Daniels said the sum for the 6 pm to 6 am shift remains the same at $4,500 since boat activity is slow after midnight.
Daniels said with the $40 boat fare, the captains earned a profit because many persons paid cash but with the increased rates more passengers are taking out weekly and monthly boat tickets which are pre-paid to the owners of the boat.
The captain said the boat owners therefore, are getting a better deal as a boat ticket allows a passenger to travel several times during a single day. Without a ticket passengers pay $50 per crossing. Because of this, Daniels said the situation feels, “like you are really not doing nothing,” but he said, “you gotta try with it.” The captain said some days he won’t make a profit and sometimes captains may owe the operators of the boat service, if they have not earned enough to pay the shift fee. “I would not say it working out better,” he said of the new fares.
A captain attached to the Rigby Boat Service told Stabroek News that passengers are paying the increase and that he has not received many complaints. This boat captain who declined to give his name, did not relate seeing an increase in persons purchasing boat tickets. He told this newspaper that some persons may ask about the increase but they understand that the service is facing increased costs. He pointed out that operational costs have increased including for fuel and spare parts like plugs which are sometimes replaced monthly. The captain also decried the quality of spare parts, saying they do not last as long as they did in the past.
