Matanzas/Will it happen or will it happen? That is the question that is repeated between those who wait at the bus stops of Matanzas. The arrival of the bus has become so unpredictable that many prefer to start in the sun or resort to private transport, even if they empty their pocket.
At noon, Marisela arrives at the stop on Contreras Street, in front of the Catholic bishopric. The heat was unbearable. “Not even a shadow to endure the delay of the bushes,” he complains, with sweat running on his forehead. According to the provincial government notes in Telegram, eight urban routes circulate in the city. But reality forces people to appeal to private tricycles and motorcycles, the only safe way to move.
“I spend the whole day on the street and I can only ride on Route 13, when he takes the first tour in the morning from the EIDE (School of School Sports Initiation) to Canímar. After that only return, nobody knows when he will return,” says the woman. In the afternoon, when leaving his work, he has no choice but to pay 100 pesos to a driver of a particular machine to stay in the René Fraga park. “I do that from Monday to Saturday, and after 3:00 in the afternoon I have not seen a single local bus open the doors in front of me.”
“After 3:00 in the afternoon I have not seen a single local bus open the doors in front of me”
The newspaper Girón He recently announced the arrival in the province of “more than 400 tires and around 200 batteries” to repair buses and restore routes. But the news clashes with everyday experience. “Yesterday, early in the morning, I was more than an hour and a half in the square, waiting for Route 7 to stay in the Maceo Park. If a friend does not pass and picks me up, I would still be there,” Roberto explains to this newspaper, with his hand resting on the post where a stop sign with the blank boxes hangs.
One of the most common passenger claims is the lack of information: nobody knows when a route or how often passes. To solve it, the Urban 330 web mobile application was launched on the Apklis platform, which promises to show in real time the location of the bus. In Matanzas, however, it only works with Route 13, and in a doubtful way. “I came running because he pointed out that the bus was in the viaduct. 25 minutes have already passed, enough time to have reached its final destination. It seems that even the application wants to misinform us,” the man laments.
The official explanations do not convince either. Blas Bemier Dueñas, director of the EU Municipal Transport Matanzas, said that if fuel was missing “the schedules would run to the restoration of operations.” In practice, the state inspector at the stop is limited to clarifying prices: the panoramic, designed for tourist tours, costs 10 pesos, Route 12 is worth 5 and the others maintain the symbolic rate of one weight. “The problem is not the cost of the passage, but most of the time they do not work. The stops are often empty because people do not come or ride in what appears,” admits one of these inspectors, dressed in their blue uniform.
/ 14ymedio
The authorities ensure that the buses assigned to state companies will return to the urban service when the main routes are restored. But inconsistencies are seen. “If Route 9 only has a bus, how is it possible that you have an exit at 10:50 am and another at 11:00 am, just ten minutes later?” Mario asks, without obtaining an answer.
At the end of the day, the two -story panoramic bus appears down from the Park of La Libertad. The few passengers scattered at the stop run to ride in what, they know, perhaps it is the last tour of the day.
