ONE MAN CAME OUT in support of the operators of public service vehicles (PSVs) who have written to Government requesting a fare increase to $3, among other things.
In his extended discourse, reader E. Jerome Davis pointed out it was not a level playing field because the Transport Board was subsidised and the cost of parts, diesel, insurance and road tax had to be taken into account since it charged the same $2.
But, he added: “I seldom use them because I love my life. But we have to be fair.”
From the readers who use them, there has been a litany of complaints. They say operators and the people they employ need to clean up their act before any fare increase is entertained.
Here are some of their responses.
E. Jerome Davis: The playing field is not level. You don’t have to like them to be fair to them – $2 bus fare for any distance is not feasible. That is why the Transport Board is in shambles. We must take the politics out of transportation.
Chenice Gibson: I have no problem paying wunna $3 fare but if I paying it, I want proper vehicles that don’t leak or doors that don’t come off, and I don’t want you squeezing five people in a three-seater. I want to sit comfortably without having to lean forward or have my knees and feet squished up.
Margo Morris: You want $3 but don’t want to abide by the law. Don’t want to respect passengers or other road users. Don’t want to wear uniform. Want to play loud music, cuss and drink on the job. Better wheel and come again. We want better service.
Asanti Bellamy: I want them to drive safer, stop playing the dub songs and smell a little better before they get my three dollars.
Wayne Adrian Jordan: Not even $2.25 or $2.50, but straight to 3?
Ann King: Cursing, fighting, driving slow on the road, parking for hours in the bus stand for two dollars. For three dollars what would them do now?
Meli Batson: Ya know why the PSV operators don’t care? Because the majority of us who catch the vans sit down and allow them to play with our lives and say nothing except on a forum that makes no difference. There are PSV operators that do care – support them and leave the disrespectful ones to learn a lesson.
Wayne R. Pilgrim-Cadogan: Who is really running this country, the PSV owners or the Government? How is it that the PSV operators break every law and do as they like and are untouchable? I have to blame the public, because they encourage them to break the laws. What the public needs to do is to stop complaining, and do not endanger their lives and not to travel in the PSVs.
• Sherrylyn Toppin is The Nation’s Online Editor.
