Commuters along the Curepe to Chaguanas route are being advised not to pay the increased fare of $12. Instead, they are being urged to travel with drivers who are charging the current fare of $10.
Claiming there was a “war” brewing among the route drivers as 97 per cent of them were not in agreement with the proposed increase, some of the drivers said they wanted to avoid imposing any further hardships on the travelling public.
The advice comes days after the increased fare was announced by president of the Curepe/Chaguanas Taxi Drivers Association Farouk Ghany.
Working the route for close to three years, one driver operating a seven-seater Serena bus which uses Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) said he remained largely unaffected by the gas hike which took effect on October 1.
Unwilling to provide his name, the driver said, “I am not changing my fares, I will remain at $10 per passenger.”
He said it only costs around $17 to fill his tank with CNG and he is able to make three round trips from Curepe to Chaguanas after he fills up.
Angered over the attempt to make commuters pay more, he said, “A lot of the drivers are feeling the pinch because they have to pay more now to fill their tanks.
But when the fares were increased last year by $2, it was with the understanding this would cover any further increases in the gas price to come, so to come now and tell passengers to absorb a second price increase within a year is not fair or right.”
Another driver said, “Many passengers are kicking against it and I don’t blame them. At the end of the day, people’s salaries are not increasing and in order for everyone to live, the drivers have to absorb some costs too because they are the ones putting the bread and butter on our tables.”
‘Ask the driver the fare
before you get into the car’
A third driver also operating a Serena bus using Super gasoline said he had faced an increase of between $50 and $70 to fill his tank daily—which moved from between $150/$160 to between $ 220/$230.
He said while it was about the same for nearly all the drivers as 98 per cent of them operated the seven-seater taxis, “Nobody on this route uses an entire tank per day, he or she may use around three-quarters or so.”
Another driver added, “As of now, with the current economic climate, people cannot afford that and I will not be supporting it. The commuters are the ones who put food on our table and I cannot in all good conscience do that to them. “What passengers need to do for themselves is to ask a driver what the fare is before they get into the vehicle.”
Operating a popular eatery in Curepe Junction, the female proprietor said, “I paid $10 to come from Chaguanas and while gas went up, you have to think about things both ways.
“I understand the price rise and maintenance is costly, but somebody has to look out for the poor man. Why didn’t they raise by $1? For single-parent families who have multiple kids travelling the same route, it will be much harder.”
The woman, who is in her mid-30s said, “Plenty of my customers prefer to go and wait for the maxi or bus now.”
PoS to Chaguanas
fare remains at $11
While the fare from Port-of-Spain to Chaguanas remains at $11, the Curepe/Chaguanas drivers said it was “unheard” of for their fare to go beyond what was being charged by Port-of-Spain drivers who have a longer distance to cover.
The Curepe drivers said they experienced a fall-out following the fare increase last year.
One of the younger drivers said he was disappointed over Ghany’s proposal as, “People are already suffering and to add more to it, that’s not nice. The greedy ones want the $12 but this is sufferation for us and them.”
A father of four, he sought to assure the travelling public that he understood their plight as he said it was costing him $600 per week to send his children to school on a weekly basis.
The commuters Guardian Media spoke with all said they were consulting with drivers regarding the fares before entering the taxis.
One man said, “The Government didn’t consider what a price increase would mean for the drivers and how it would affect the average man on the street, they just didn’t think at all.”
An elderly woman said, “I don’t know how I will survive because I live in Chaguanas and come to the clinic in Mt Hope every couple weeks. I have to travel to go everywhere and I don’t know how much more I can do with the little money I have.”
