Express buses plying the Eastern Rwanda route are a sad nightmare. They reportedly don’t observe time, overspeed and abuse their Purpose of operating as Express transport vehicles. They have left many passengers disgraced due to poor service deliverd.
Ignace Habimana, a frequent traveller to the eastern Route says that express transport buses on this route are not punctual and they make many stop over’s soliciting for unticketed passengers.
Habimana says, “they have no specific program although they claim that they are punctual. They depart late and stop anywhere along the journey soliciting for more passengers just like the traditional minibuses.
Due to such irregularities in their service, time is wasted and mismanaged, “Actually, one spends more than two hours from Kigali to Kibungo due to such bad service. Express buses on this route have resorted to swapping passengers with regular commuter taxis,” says Habimana.
Another regular traveler aboard Express buses Francois Habimana notes that Express transport companies continuously issue tickets to passengers more than the seats available on the bus.
This leads to every ticketed passenger to compete for seats in the bus resulting into overcrowding beyond the Bus seater limit. Sometimes passengers are forced to travel on a different bus departing at a different time as opposed to time on the ticket they request thus very inconveniencing.
He adds that “sometimes, they change the time of departure and give you a next car or miss it while you have a ticket.”
Eulade Bayingana, the owner of Matunda Express, says, “we do not go beyond the expected time but the traffic jam we meet from Nyabugogo to Giporoso especially in the morning and evening hours is the main cause of delay.”
He adds that due to the shortage of passengers going to Eastern province route, there are many stops that drivers make to pick passengers. “If drivers stop to take unexpected passengers, it is their fault,” said Bayingana.
Major Express transport companies that serve the Eastern Province route include; Belvedere Lines, Stella Express, SOTRA Express, Matunda Express, International and Excel Express.
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