Based on their awful experiences during the past festive season travelling out of Freetown to the provinces, people who say they use public and private commercial transports in advance of their work and businesses in the country’s heartlands have complained of their discomforts.
Sierra Leoneans love travelling. No matter their age, our people are still eager to even travel to a neighbouring village or town, let alone going further afield. Therefore it is no small matter when our people get on a bus to head out to or from Freetown.
There are a lot of areas on Freetown, east and west, where people can get bus services going to the provinces. The most popular areas providing some form of a bus station service for vehicles heading to the provinces are the main bus station at Wallace Johnson Street where you can get buses going to Bo, Kenema, Kono, Kabala, and most points in between. Lumley and Shell are also popular transit hubs.
Sadly, based on reports gathered from people travelling out of Freetown, they are having awful experiences before, on the way and if and when they arrive at their destinations.
“The first problem we have is the price. The cost to go to the provinces if you are using the government buses, the price is cheap. But for the commercial buses, the price is costly. I pay Le125 for Bo using the government bus but can pay as much as Le145 for the private commercial vehicles. Imagine going to places like Kambia, Kabala, Zimmi, Yele. This is our problem. We do not know when and if the cost of going up-line will change. Take for example during the festive, we paid Le250 for private and even up to Le200 using government bus just to go to Bo. The first problem or discomfort we have as travellers is the cost of travelling,” said Nancy B, who was on her way to a funeral in Kenema.
Like so many other travellers this journo spoke to, the highest cost is what they are forced to pay for their luggage.
“This is where the main cost comes in. Imagine if you are taking load from Freetown to Kabala. We pay much more for our luggage than we pay for the transport fare to get home. Can you imagine that the people setting the prices for our luggage are mere boys from the provinces who see it as nothing charging some of us hundreds of new Leones just for a small load. Once again, the prices are not uniform; anyone can charge any price they feel and it’s either the passenger accepts or they bus remains put. Although we are in a free market economy, the way we are doing it is detrimental,” said Ibrahim Sorie Sillah.
Sillah said despite the exorbitant prices they are being charged for the bus ride and their luggage, his major problem with the public and private bus services is lack of space.
“As you can see most of the buses don’t have carriages; even some of their booths were not designed for much luggage. Therefore the guys who load the buses have to load the majority of our luggage under our seats. Imagine how uncomfortable it is to travel not being able to stretch out your leg. Every available space is being utilized for our goods and luggage,” said Sillah.
The most disconcerting problem faced by travellers is public or private bus or transport services breaking down on the way. The effects of wear and tear on the car and engine are seriously felt during trips upcountry.
“It is not uncommon for buses to break down on the way. Sometimes we find ourselves in ling stretches of roads without any help. It is worse during the rainy season when the roads are deplorable. Although the buses all experience breakdown, the service that we all avoid because they break down so often is the government buses. This is the main reason why government buses are not as popular any more. They are cheap but take forever to get to our destination. Then the private bus service owners and their drivers take advantage of this by having their buses not too far from the government bus at Central,” said Lovetta Kamara.
Travelling is stressful. It is not meant to be but the things and issues one has to settle before leaving on the journey can compound the traveling experience. Our people say they deserve better and have asked the providers of public and private bus or commercial vehicles to sort out the cost of travelling, decongesting their buses by freeing up of spaces meant for people of luggage and other products that should be in a luggage hold, stop overloading their buses and having illegal seats that are not part of the original bus design.
“When you overcrowd people in a bus you are causing extra people to either get injured or lose their lives and or properties. When cars are made it is assumed that in case of an accident if there were, say, five or less people in a five-seater, then the amount of people expected to lose their lives did, which is still no less comforting. But when you overload, if the extra people ended up also dying in an accident those were extra deaths that shouldn’t have happened. So over-seating or overcrowding a commercial vehicle is tantamount to causing unnecessary deaths or injuries. There is a lot to fix, but if they focus on fixing the cost of transport, the breaking down of these vehicles, the cost of our luggage, decongest the vehicles and travel with the exact amount of people then we will be on the way,” Lovetta suggested.
Travelling is great; especially if you are travelling with children and other loved ones. Many travellers complained of lack of toilet facilities in the buses, lack of a medical kit in cases of emergency and the speed some drivers engage so they can reach and return in time to make more trips.