A few days past the Tet (Lunar New Year) holidays, the traffic situation in the northern and central regions have not eased.
The 20-seat bus is stuffed with 52 people traveling from Ha Tinh Province to Hue city on February 23. (Photo: SGGP)
As of Tuesday, February 23, passengers travelling from Ha Tinh province to Hue city had to share seats because their 20-seat bus was stuffed with 52 people, Sai Gon Giai Phong found.
Waiting at the Cau Rac bus stop on National Highway 1A in Ha Tinh Province’s Cam Xuyen district to get to Hue, SGGP reporters had to let several buses go before being able to board one. Then they had to pay double the normal ticket price at VND150,000 (US$9).
Despite this, the seats had to be shared. In fact, those who could share seats were lucky, others had to sit on the floor or stand in the aisles. No one was complaining, though.
Although the bus was carrying far too many passengers, it went through traffic police stations on the highway in Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces without a problem.
When traffic police asked driver stop the bus, a driver’s assistant brought a book to policemen who took something from it (other passengers surmised it was money) and were motioned to proceed further.
At the Gio Linh police station in Quang Tri, however, traffic police made a report of the bus exceeding both the speed limit and carrying too many passengers.
The police kept the driver’s license. However, the bus was allowed to continue running without asking people to get off.
The bus driver continued to speed at 70-80 kilometers per hour to return to Ha Tinh on schedule so that he could make one more trip in the afternoon. Requests by some passengers to slow down were ignored.
It took just an hour and 15 minutes from Gio Linh in Quang Tri Province to reach Hue that is over 100 kilometers away.
The passengers had no choice and had to suffer such conditions both before and after Tet.
In related news, according to Southern Bus Station in Hanoi, more than 20 buses went south last Tuesday carrying over 1,000 passengers.
While station officials said they had ensured enough buses to the southern region, and had more ready to meet passengers’ demand, many passengers said the situation was still very stressful. There were no tickets available to Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday afternoon.
One passenger said bus brokers were offering ticket prices cheaper than at the station. While the price at the station’s counter was VND880,000 ($46) per ticket from Ha Noi to Ho Chi Minh City, the brokers offered them at VND700,000 ($37).
SGGP reporters found dozens of bus brokers in front of the station inviting passengers and buses drivers were stuffing their vehicles with extra passengers, collecting money without issuing tickets.
