Editor,Please allow me to react to the story, “City launches new public transport system today”, (The New Times, August 30).
Editor,Please allow me to react to the story, "City launches new public transport system today”, (The New Times, August 30). Apparently, the system looks good, organised and actually creates new routes. I was so excited this morning (yesterday) and left my home beaming with joy because I thought that, lastly, I was going to get to work on time and in a more convenient manner.However, the experience left a lot of questions in my mind as to whether this new transport system will actually survive the test of time.I live in Kicukiro and work in Kacyiru, but I was stranded for almost 30 minutes at the bus stage because there were no KBS and Royal Express Transport Company buses to take people to Kacyiru, Kimironko or Remera while there were actually so many taxis parked by the Kicukiro market, but which were not allowed to carry passengers, as they normally used to do because they do not belong to the so-called contracted companies.The most embarrassing scene was to see KBS and Royal Express Transport Company officials at the bus stops, chasing taxis that wanted to save us from the irritating situation.We were bitter but actually decided to force our way into some of the parked taxis amidst serious resistance from those transport companies’ officials.In such cases, what do the authorities expect us, the innocent passengers, to do while the system started this bad on the very first day, yet it was announced earlier enough for them to prepare themselves!Unfortunately, there was nobody from the regulators Rura on the scene to assess the situation.My question is: Is there any grace period that was given to these companies during which passengers should withstand the suffering before public transport in Kigali is fully streamlined?Kanamugire, Kigali