Bus operators plying the Georgetown-Timehri route pulled the brakes on their operations this morning, as they picketed for an increase in the fares for the route.
The current bus fare from Georgetown to Timehri is $260, but according to the bus drivers and conductors, while the cost of living has rocketed, and the cost for vehicle parts has increased steadily, the fare has remained stagnant.
At the Timehri Bus Park in heart of the city, Eon Benjamin Norton – a bus driver and father of eight – told News Source that in addition to the steady rise in cost of living, bus operators plying the route have to contend with the poor state of roads, which has resulted in traffic congestion, and reduced trips.
Norton said given the reality, bus operators can no longer work for $260 as a one side fare.
“Most of these drivers out here is work for somebody, and these targets for these bus is $10,000 per day for six days per week, that’s $60,000 a week. If you calculate the fair structure, if you are carrying 13 passengers to Timehri every day, is lil bit money. You have to pay conductor, you have to pay the driver, you have to buy gas, you got to wash, then you got to ensure that the owner get he $10,000 because he ain’t care how you mek the money out here and you still got your family to feed, it ain’t profitable, we can’t live with it. That is oppression. We need a raise of pay, that’s oppression. And we need the government to look into this, and no $20 and $40 can’t work because the cost of living very high, we all know this,” Norton said.
Norton proposes the bus fare be increased to $500 or more.
Another driver, Shemar Adams said it is only fair that the fare be increased.
“I think it is fair enough for us to get a raise of pay or a fare increase because it is needed. I think it is about 10 years now, and within the 10 years, we had a lot of budgets, a lot of things were raised pertaining to vehicle parts,” he said.
John Walker, a bus conductor, said while the Timehri bus fare has been stagnant for more than a decade, other locations, have seen increases in the fares. Walker pointed out that the fare from Georgetown to Parika has increased from $300 to $600, while the Timehri to Georgetown route has seen no increase.
“I think we need, we need a raise of fare. We need a raise of fare not by $20 or $40. When I was going school over 15 years ago, we was $240, Parika was $300 and change. Now, Parika fare has doubled to $600 from all those years ago, double, and we are the same distance, but we only get $20 from all those years – $240 to $260,” he said.
The bus operators are also calling for the buses operating along the Georgetown to Timehri route to be zoned according to where they are working. The bus operators want the Minister of Home Affairs, Oneidge Waldron to intervene in the matter. Just last week the Guyana Police Force reissued fare structures encouraging drivers to stick to the fares.
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