Cancellation of trips by private buses between Kozhikode and Kannur creates inconvenience. One reason or the other, bus operators justify themselves; but many passengers become hapless victims. While passengers complain odd behavior of bus employees, the operators justify their move by simply highlighting either their time constraints or any silly reasons or even no reason at all. When some buses cancel service at the starting point itself; others are canceling their trip midway, which cause enormous trouble to long distance travelers.
A Kannur bound private bus halted at Vengalam after dropping passengers. Heavy luggage is seen on the top.
The passengers who become the scapegoats point out many hidden business tactics of bus operators. ‘If they want to cancel the trip, why they ride us for few miles and abruptly ask us to get down?” asks an irritated passenger who had to get down at Vengalam, where the bus they were traveling halted its trip. This bus was overloaded with bulky luggage on the top carrier, which gets them huge profits; he added.
Madhu, another passenger in a Kannur bound bus said that when the bus operator gets enough revenue from the luggage loaded at the starting point, they break the trip and halt at a convenient and beneficial location. “This is predominantly evident especially at a time when the number of passengers is comparatively low.”
‘Sometimes, when two buses of same owner leaves the bus stand within a difference of few minutes, the first bus may cancel its trip middle way and the passengers are accommodated in the second bus of the same owner’-this is another adjustment by bus operators, complains Hamsa, another passenger who regularly depend private buses for attending his office. While it may be economical for the operator, Hamsa gets a late attendance for no fault of his, occasionally!
Most commuters who depend on public transport on a daily basis for work are silent sufferers, opined Abdulla.
