Bad economy hits transport industry hard this Easter season

There is a low turn-up of people travelling to villages for Easter festivities at bus terminals and taxi parks. This has been attributed to among other reasons poor economy.

Unlike previous years where people would Holly Thursday have flooded taxi parks and bus terminals, this time round business is slow as passengers are very few. Transport fairs have not been increased.

The manager of Kwizera Executive bus company, Wavamuno Salim, says although they have not increased the fairs the fuel price challenge persists.

“Now like in Namayiba bus terminal, a bus plying the Gulu and Kitgum route takes between three to four hours to get full. This is coupled with a lot of negotiations from passengers to reduce the fairs. This is the situation of transport in most of the terminals in and around Kampala this Easter season,” he said.

Muhammad Abubakar, the manager of the gateway bus company, attributes the low turn-up of passengers to people not having money.

“For example, most of the inter-state buses plying Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania went out of business after the covid-19 lockdown. Some that remained transformed into transporting cargo. People are trying to recover their businesses from covid-19 so very few are travelling for Easter festivities,” he added.

In the news taxi park, the situation is not different. Drivers of minibuses and taxis plying long routes like Jinja, Hoima, and Mbale have lost hope of reaping from this Easter because there are no passengers.

Lubega Abdu-Shafi, the spokesperson of the new taxi park, says people resorted to sending money to their relatives in the villages via mobile money instead of travelling.

Buses plying to local routes most times cause accidents during festive seasons. Namayiba Management has given drivers refresher training, to prevent accidents.