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Commuters want RTA to retain Route E304

Commuters between Sharjah's Al Jubail and Dubai's Satwa area, who travel on RTA inter-city bus route E304, have urged the authority to retain the original route.

The route was altered during the recent overhauling of the route network.

As part of RTA 's efforts to improve the bus network's efficiency and punctuality, a massive overhauling was done, which saw several routes merged, some new ones added and a few routes being cancelled.

Though the changes have generally been received well, some changes have not gone down well with the commuters. And the merger of the Karama and Satwa routes is one of them. Before July 1, when the changes came into effect, two separate bus routes connected Sharjah with Karama and Satwa. However, following the restructuring of routes, both the popular routes were merged, which meant a single bus route - E304 - starts from Satwa goes via Karama and then 
on to Sharjah.

This might have increased the efficiency of public transport and helped RTA allocate its resources in a better way, but regular commuters are far from impressed. They allege that the merger has effectively added at least half an hour to their regular 
travel time.

"I have been using the Sharjah-Satwa bus to travel between my workplace and residence for more than two years now," said Andrea Alvares, a Filipina secretary who lives in Sharjah and works on Al Dhiyafa Road, Dubai. It would always take between 30 and 45 minutes one way. But with this detour to Karama, it takes at least 20 minutes more in each direction," she added.

Sri Lankan Resul Mohammed, who also lives in Sharjah and works in one of Al Dhiyafa's chain of restaurants is of the similar view. "I have to start early from home to reach work now.

My duty starts at 11 in the morning and I used to set off from home at 9.30am.

But now I start before 9 to compensate for the extra time taken by the bus," said the 25-year-old waiter.

Though the regular Karama-Sharjah commuters have not been affected much, sentiments of frustration 
and anguish run across the Satwa 
commuters.

When Khaleej Times approached RTA with the issue, Acting CEO of the Public Transport Agency, Mohammed Abu Baker Al Hashemi, promised to look into the matter.

However, he added that the route rationalisation is done by an expert team employed by RTA only after carrying out a survey.

"We did the restructuring to help people and it wasn't done arbitrarily. We carried out a thorough survey and studied every aspect before making changes to the routes," said Al Hashemi, adding that the changes came into effect only a month ago and the trial run will continue for another two months.

He noted that RTA studies the response for at least three months and only after that will a decision to reverse the earlier decision be taken.

This effectively means commuters will have to bear with the inconvenience for two more months before expecting any change, if at all.

By Shafaat Ahmed

© Khaleej Times 2010