Commuters in the Granville Williams Terminal, Fairchild Street, expressed frustration stemming from the longer bus routes leading into St Joseph after the closure of Melvin Hill Bridge last week.
Closure of the popular artery connecting the eastern parish required diversions which commuters say resulted in longer wait times and headaches for passengers On Wednesday, the Weekend Nation spoke with waiting travellers, as they vented on the current state of the routes heading into the country.
While several spoke under condition of anonymity, one vocal commuter, Elson Smith, said that his experiences with public transportation turned a daily commute into an unappealing odyssey.
Smith was first observed standing alone by the gate for the Chalky Mount bus where he waited in hope for the timely arrival of the bus scheduled for 9:30 a.m.
According to the Transport Board website, the timetables for the Chalky Mount bus heading out of the Fairchild Street terminal indicated several early morning departures at 7:30, 08:30 and 10:30, with subsequent buses set to arrive at least one hour apart until the final trip at midnight.
While not listed on the site, the arrival of a 9:30 bus was expected by those familiar with the route. Smith said that intended schedule was a far cry from reality were buses as often late and several hours apart.
Closure of Melvin Hill
Since the closure of Melvin Hill Bridge, he said the true wait time runs closer to two to four hours between each bus.
“Between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30[in the morning] there is no other bus from Chalky Mount and the next bus from Bridgetown is 3:30 and it doesn’t get into Chalky Mount until at least 5 or 6 [p.m.]. You have to wait that long,” he said.
Smith added that with the closure, commuters along the route from Horse Hill and Bathsheba also take the Chalky Mount bus more frequently, adding to the stops and congestion of travellers.
“It’s not that we want to separate them but all of that is adding to the driver’s time too. If you had to take the bus route, you would holler. It takes a driver four and a half hours to get down the road to get back up here,” he said.
As 9:30 neared, other travellers joined the
queue and added their own experiences with transportation in recent days.
One man said that last week, he arrived at the terminal for 11 a.m. but did not see a Chalky Mount bus until more than three hours later.
Another man disclosed that the closure of the bridge and the longer wait time for transport caused him to be late to work at least three times and was causing a great deal of tension at his place of employment.
“I’m supposed to get to work by 6, the first bus on a morning is 5 but the 5’o’ clock bus is getting to Town after 7, so no matter what bus you get you can’t get there any earlier now that the bridge is down. You know what is getting ready at 4’o’ clock to get to work for 6 or 7 and you’re still getting to work late? You are on time but not the service.”
As the commuters shared their experiences, 10 a.m. neared without sight of the bus scheduled for 9:30. Around 9:50, they were informed by a terminal worker that the 9:30 bus would not be arriving and they would have to wait until 10:30.
That update was met with deep sighs from the travellers.
“This transportation is bad, that is the truth,” one woman ranted. “I come in here for a 9 o’clock Sugar Hill van and there is none, so then I have to wait for Chalky Mount, but then at 9:30 a.m., there is no bus for Chalky Mount.”
“We want a stable structure of bridges and roads,” said Smith. “That bridge should have been fixed ever since, instead of waiting until it break down, and the situation putting people jobs in trouble,” he added.
With an air of defeat, some of the commuters turned to rest on the terminal benches all the while voicing their hopes that the 10:30 bus would arrive at its scheduled time. (JRN)
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