TSRTC waits, but morning passengers hard to find

Hyderabad: Demonetisation has hit people who take the early morning buses as RTC drivers wait for more passengers. Fewer people are travelling in buses due to lack of small change needed to pay for tickets. Buses have a schedule but controllers are overlooking the delays of up to 20 minutes as drivers wait for passengers.

“I was supposed to reach Dilskuhnagar by 6 am but the bus from Rathifile bus stand started late. The driver waited for passengers up to 5.30 am while the bus should have left at 5.15 am. Even at 5.30 there were three passengers including me,” said Mr G. Sadanad Goud, who went to attend an early-morning marriage at Dilsukhnagar.

Conductors said post demonitisation the occupancy ratio had come down, and ticket sales were not exceeding RS 30 per trip on some routes. “We wait for passengers even 15 to 20 minutes beyond schedule time. This is possible only for the early morning trips as there are few passengers, two or three of them with no change. So they don’t pressure us to start,” a conducter said.

On a short distance route from Secunderabad to Gangaputra Colony (Route No. 44x), which is less than 3 km, there was only one paying passenger who purchased a '7-ticket — the minimum fare in the city — for the first trip; the 11 others had passes.

“Sometimes not a single ticket is sold as the few passengers early in the morning have passes, After the currency problem started, the number of passengers who buy tickets has come down and even they have Rs 100 notes. We are rejecting passengers carrying the Rs 2,000 note as we do not have change to return,” said Mr Sudhakar Rao B, a conductor.

Passengers complained that the conductors were demanding exact change. “Where is the change. We want to travel and we would give it to the conductor if we had it. RTC management should arrange for change,” said Mr Raghuram C. Verma, a passenger.