DAVAO City has added eight units to its Peak Hours Augmentation Bus System (Phabs), Dionisio Abude, head of the Davao City Transport and Traffic Management Office (CTTMO), confirmed.
In an interview with SunStar Davao on Monday, September 18, Abude said that the observation of stranded passengers prompted the addition of more buses.
“As of now naa ta'y additional kay tungod naa man gyud tay nakita na stranded diha sa may Matina Crossing so naa tay kuan na taga Bachelor (As of now we have additional buses because we observed that there are a lot of stranded passengers at Matina Crossing so we added Bachelor [buses]),” Abude said.
He also noted that besides Matina Crossing, there were also significant numbers of stranded passengers, especially during the afternoon, in the vicinity of the University of Mindanao (UM)-Matina.
Under the Phabs project, the city utilizes six buses from Golden Valley for Panacan, three from Land Car Incorporated (LCI) for Toril, four from Metro Shuttle for Mintal, and now an additional eight buses from Bachelor Express Inc.
Abude said that four buses operate under Phabs every night, and if the demand from commuters surpasses the available buses, additional buses will be dispatched.
He added, “Ani na siya pag puno, syempre naa tay unom sa Golden Valley, pag naa gani kulang, mutawag atoang inspector para madungagan siya. Dili man pod pwede na makuan (idungan) natu kay syempre ma-istambay sila (When the buses are full, even with the initial six from Golden Valley, the inspector will request an additional bus. We can't deploy them all at once as it would result in some buses sitting idle).”
The expansion of Phabs with more buses aims to address the shortage of public utility vehicles, particularly during peak hours, and mitigate the city's worsening traffic congestion. RGP