The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) will field buses in transportation routes where there is an observed acute lack of public utility jeepneys (PUJs) plying these areas.
Affected by lack of PUJs are Toril, Catalunan Granded, Mintal, Panacan, and other parts of Davao City where long lines of stranded passengers have been observed the past several days.
LTFRB transportation and development officer Virgilio Jibone said that the agency will be studying the proposal of deploying emergency buses to stranded areas especially during peak hours. LTFRB issued the statement after receiving numerous complaints coming from passengers over the dearth of public transportation in the said areas.
“We will be requesting for the deployment of buses, if the city government will want it,” Jibone said on Thursday during the iSpeak media forum at the City Hall of Davao.
The LTFRB official said that the number of buses to be deployed will depend upon the volume of passengers stranded in a particular area, as borne out by studies and monitoring.
On Wednesday, a Facebook post showing a long queue of residents of Cataluna Grande waiting for a jeepney went viral.
According to Elaine Lucmayon, author of the post, the lack of jeepneys in their area had been a long-time problem.
“Waking up early seems useless once you see the long line you had to endure, plus there is no jeep. You would still end up late in your destination,” Lucmayon said in Cebuano.
City Transport and Traffic Management Office (CTTMO) head Dionisio Abude said their office had also been conducting surveys among commuters stranded in various areas of the city since Friday last week.
“We are also gathering data on the stranded areas within the business district, which we will be forwarding to the City Administrator’s Office for consideration,” Abude said.
As to the updates on the High Priority Bus System (HPBS), the traffic head said that city transport and traffic officials are already studying the routes for the new bus system.
“We already engaged our initial dialogues with different transport groups, who will be affected by the bus system,” Abude said.
HPBS is a proposed modernized transport system of the city,that aims to shift from outdated and expensive PUJs to a more convenient, cleaner, and faster mode of transportation.
The new bus system also aims to decongest the large bulk of public transport vehicles in the city.
