25 January 2010
IRBID -- Commuters heading to Irbid's northern and western areas on Sunday were forced to wait for nearly an hour until bus operators decided to end a work stoppage over a recent tariff update.

Owners of public buses operating between the terminal in the south of Irbid and terminals in the northern and western districts said they held an hour-long strike to protest against the Public Transport Regulatory Commission's (PTRC) exclusion of their routes from its decision to raise public transportation fares.

Last week, the PTRC decided to raise public transportation fares by 10 per cent as of Sunday.

"We were told by the commission that the routes were not included in the update because they have the largest number of passengers," Maen Yousef, a bus owner, told The Jordan Times yesterday.

Ahmad Zu'bi, another operator, indicated that the routes represent the longest in the northern city, as the distance between the southern terminal and the northern terminal is over 12 kilometres.

He pointed out that other operators with routes less than 6 kilometres and lower operational costs were included in the update.

PTRC Spokesperson Ikhlas Yousef said the new increase in public transportation fares was based on the length of the route and operational costs, noting that operators who disagree with the decision can appeal to the PTRC to review their case.

Bus driver Ahmad Mohammad indicated that the recent update represented the fifth time the PTRC excluded the two routes from a tariff hike.

He said operators were surprised not to be included the recent update after they were assured by the PTRC they would be among beneficiaries of the recent decision.

"Officials at the PTRC believe that these two routes are the busiest in the city, but they do not know that between 9:00am and 2:00pm the number of passengers declines sharply," he noted.

By Omar Obeidat

© Jordan Times 2010