During the “peak hours” or times of greatest demand for Collective Urban Transport (TUC), week after week, the inability of the Daniel Ortega regime, its institutions and cooperatives to solve the problem of overloading of the units, especially in Managua, becomes evident.
The TUC buses are still packed, with passengers “hanging” or riding on the steps of the bus doors. The capacity between seven and eight in the morning or between five and six-thirty in the afternoon is exceeded to such an extent that the bus doors are left open due to the excess of passengers. Other users, who are “less lucky” to board the buses, have to arrive late to their workplaces because they have to wait for the next bus.
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The Nicaraguan regime, although it has emphasized its efforts to buy and renew the TUC vehicle fleet not only in Managua but in other municipalities of the country, acquiring from October 2023 to August of this year a total of 1,100 units of Chinese buses, Yutong brand, continues to fail to ensure that the service provided is of quality.
The cooperatives operating in Managua continue to send few units to cover peak demand times, that is, between 6 and 9 in the morning, and between 4 and 7 at night, which are times when the capital’s population enters and leaves their workplaces, schools or universities.
Higher frequency and more units
Rubén Arriola, from the Consumer Management Consulting firm, highlights that as consumer advocates they have welcomed the efforts of the Government and the Mayor of Managua to import buses of Chinese origin, but he stresses that the cooperatives “have to improve the frequency” with which they allow the units to circulate, mentioning that if they are sent, for example, every eight minutes, then the time should be reduced to five minutes.
The consumer advocate recalled that this commitment had already been signed by the bus cooperatives, but they have yet to comply with it.
«They promised to improve the frequency when they made the first deliveries, when the first buses arrived. They promised to give a better service, with quality and warmth, that is, they made it clear that they were not going to saturate the units; they said they were going to work until 10 at night and they have not kept their word; that they were going to be orderly and that they were going to respect the traffic signs and they have also failed to do so; they said they were going to put the phone numbers inside the bus so that people could report mistreatment or poor service from the drivers of the units and they have not kept their word either,» said Arriola.
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He also said that there should be improvements in the treatment given to drivers of TUC units, in order to ensure “efficient work and humane treatment that should be given to users.”
“Drivers should be included in social security, as they are non-collaborating workers, who get up at 3 in the morning and take the units out to work at 4:45 in the morning,” he recommended.
