Metrobus exposed

What was supposed to be a simple half an hour trip from Roodekrans to the Roodepoort CBD by bus turned into utter disappointment and agony.

For years, the Record has been swamped with telephone calls and emails that the public transport system is not what it should be. With a team of four, the Record went undercover for one morning and experienced some of the stress and frustration that its community has been complaining about.

Editor Tihan van der Walt and I boarded the first bus and armed with a Samsung smartphone with video capability I recorded as much as I could of the driver, while Van der Walt made general observations and recorded other aspects of our “joyride”. Colleagues Riaan van Zyl and Mathilde Myburgh were tailing the bus as well as they could, trying to record every move the driver made.

The first objective of ‘Mission Metrobus’ was achieved the day before at the Record office. Believe it or not, it was quite easy to get hold of the Roodepoort Bus Depot to find out where to catch the bus, its time of arrival at the specific bus stop and the costs involved.

The Metrobus official told the Record that the trip from Ridgevale Primary School in Roodekrans to anywhere in the Roodepoort CBD will cost a little over R12 and that we should be at the bus stop at 6.40am sharp.

The team rose at 5am on Wednesday morning 25 July, shaved and shampooed, and felt up to the challenge of being bus commuters.

But upon our arrival at the bus stop at 6.20am reality struck us in the face.

At around 6.50am – 10 minutes later than the bus’ scheduled time of arrival – three pupils who also were waiting for the bus told the Record that the bus is running late, as it does most of the time. The pupils were supposed to be at school at 7.30am, but the bus finally arrived only around 45 minutes later.

After almost freezing to death while waiting, we could finally board the bus.

The next objective was to ask the somewhat confused driver whether we had boarded the right bus, where it was going to, and how much would it cost us. We told her that we wanted to go to Westgate, to which the Record got the unexpected response of “Hau”, as if we were requesting the unthinkable. I only had R50 on me to pay for my bus fare and the price of the ticket was R8,70. I was told that I would get my change only when I get off. Van der Walt, on the other hand, handed the driver R10 but was not promised any change.

While on the bus the Record picked up other irregularities of great concern. As expected the bus ran a red traffic light and the driver accelerated while passengers still were trying to find a seat.

Once at Westgate, the driver indeed remembered to hand me my change for the R50, but I only got R40. It seemed that the driver, on her own initiative, enforced a surcharge and in this case, it was R1,30 from each of us. Van der Walt is still waiting for his change.

At the Westgate bus terminal, the Record was told to speak to a specific bus inspector but because we were unable to identify him, we failed. One commuter waiting for a bus pointed him out to us but when the Record tried to draw his attention by calling “sir, sir”, he – perhaps unintentionally – ignored our calls and got onto the bus we had just got off from.

By the way, were were supposed to board the bus to the CBD the moment we arrived at Westgate, which of course we missed, but another inspector ensured us that another bus would arrive in 20 minutes. So we waited (again) …

Surprisingly, about 10 minutes later, another Metrobus arrived. This time we were off to the CBD at the exorbitant fee of R56 for the two of us, to be exact. I handed the driver R20 and received R3 change (according to our tickets we were off to Joburg CBD, while we clearly stated Roodepoort CBD). When it was my editor’s turn to board the bus, he only had R9 on him and handed it to the driver. The driver told him that he needed to pay R17, but started driving. Van der Walt offered the driver R200 but he didn’t have change (understandably). He then was told that he could pay once we reached the CBD.

Van der Walt walked (stumbled, really) to the back of the bus where he had to face graffiti and torn and broken seats. Once we reached the CBD, I got off the bus but my editor still had to pay his bus fare – our colleagues in the other car then brought R100 to his rescue. At that point the driver asked Van der Walt in a surprised tone, “Oh, are you getting off here?”. Van der Walt confirmed once again. The driver then admitted that he had overcharged him (never mind the fact that I had to pay R17 and he didn’t reimburse me when I got off). He took the R100 from Van der Walt and gave him R70 change. This means that I paid an “inflated” amount of R17, and my editor an exaggerated R39 to commute from Westgate to Roodepoort CBD.

Our conclusion following the excursion? We respect those commuters who accept the very daunting challenge of travelling by Metrobus every day.

Rumours about Metrobus drivers’ rudeness and short-changing commuter are not rumours – not to mention their often questionable driving “skills”.

Even though the Record prefers not to generalise and believes that there are skilled Metrobus drivers and smooth rides on certain routes, what are the chances that the first and second bus we boarded on a random week day turned out to be cans of worms waiting to be opened?

You decide.