Crowded buses leave passengers in lurch

Manama

With the festive season knocking the door, the hustle and bustle is palpable everywhere in the Kingdom. Even the public buses in Bahrain witnessed heavy rush yesterday, as people visited their dear and near one’s on the occasion of Eid. However, there were complaints from passengers about lack of adequate buss services during Eid.  

A huge number of expatriates relied the public bus network for their travel yesterday. A driver of a bus that plies between Isa Town and Airport told DT News that the buses experienced heavy rush since morning itself. “But the rush increased further in the evening. People preferred traveling in the evening since the temperature came down at that time,” he said.

But all not went well with some passengers as they had to wait for a longer periods to catch buses. Especially, passengers traveling between Riffa and Manama complained of lack of buses during peak hours.

 One of the passengers at East Riffa said he had to wait for almost one-and-a-half hour to catch the bus towards Manama. “I came to the bus stand around 4.15pm. But the bus came at 5.10pm. The bus driver refused to board us because the bus was already full. Again, I had to wait for another half-an-hour under scorching sun to catch the next bus,” he groused. Adding to his burden, there was no bus shelter. 

Buses with route numbers 54 and X4 ply between Manama and Riffa. Buses with route number 54 ply via West Riffa, Isa Town, Salmabad and Sehla, while X4 passes through Sitra and Salmaniya.

 Most of the passengers prefer X4 as it takes less time to reach Manama. But delay in bus service in this route yesterday evening annoyed a huge number of passengers.