Some commuters were on Wednesday morning left stranded as drivers of the Quality Bus Transport system, popularly known as Aayalolo continue their sit down strike.
The bus drivers commenced their strike on Tuesday night to demand their eight months’ salary arrears owed them between 2017 and 2018.
When Citi News visited the Accra Central bus terminal, drivers were seen idling about while the buses remained parked.
Some passengers who spoke to Citi News said the development has left them frustrated.
“I live at Tettegu and when I am going home every day, I use the Aayalolo buses. Yesterday, I got home after 9 pm because I didn’t a vehicle home. This morning, I woke up at 2 am because I didn’t want a situation where I will struggle. As I sit here, I am wondering how I will go home this evening.”
Another said:
“I am at Kasoa and because I work close to their terminal, I just board the bus after the day’s work. We waited for them in vain yesterday. They should have told us that, they would not work but we waited for 7 pm before we got a vehicle home. At the time, the traffic was unbearable.”
This is not the first time operations of the Aayalolo bus service have come to a halt because of financial challenges, and what managers then referred to as technical hitches.
In October 2018, there was a similar exercise that affected the operations of the bus system and passengers.
Six months on, there was a partial resumption of operations to Kasoa; a deviation from the Achimota to Tudu stretch where a kilometre of that stretch was designated for their services.
GAPTE intervention
The Greater Accra Passenger Transport Executive (GAPTE) reportedly applied for a bailout from the government to help it pay for the cost of fuel, salaries and other operational expenses, but the Ministry of Transport turned down the request.
Patronage of the buses was quite high when the service began in 2016, but it started dwindling six months afterwards from the expected 12,000 passengers per day to 9,000.
Patronage on a daily basis ranged between 9,000 and 10,000 on the Amasaman-Ofankor-Achimota-Accra Central Business District (CBD) corridor.
Aside from the low patronage, drivers of the Aayololo buses have embarked on a series of strikes over unpaid salaries.
