SPTC explains revised bus timetable to be effective tomorrow |17 August 2020
The Seychelles Public Transport (SPTC) has said it has carried out a lot of monitoring over the past three months in line with the Covid-19 measures set out by the department of health which has allowed it to identify the areas where it needs to reinforce and adjust its services.
But Bernadette Soffola, the SPTC’s general manager for operations, has stressed that the bus timings for weekends remain unchanged.
She further pointed out that during the monitoring the SPTC has for instance found the need to introduce bus services that start outside the terminal during peak hours and where there is large concentration of commuters like at the Eden Island/Roche Caiman roundabout going toward the south, Providence going via La Misère, the ex-playground going via Anse Royale…
“The advantage of these new additional services is that commuters will no longer have to rely on buses coming from the Victoria terminal as they can now catch a bus home closer to their work places which is a relief for workers,” Ms Soffola stated.
Another adjustment that Ms Soffola highlighted is that services on a number of routes during morning and afternoon peak hours have been converted into ‘express’ to ensure that commuters who live far can reach their work places as well as get home after work much faster.
Additional services have also been added on the Pointe Larue route to serve those commuters going to Petit Paris, Brillant, Cascade, Le Rocher so that they refrain from using long distance and express buses.
Ms Soffola noted that the SPTC is using the same limited resources it has to make the adjustments so it can bring further relief and comfort to commuters.
She is calling on commuters and members of the public in general to update themselves on the adjustments to bus services and to the new revised timetable that has been released and is available at the terminal and can be downloaded from the SPTC website.
Meanwhile Ms Soffola is again urging commuters to continue to buy rechargeable bus cards to avoid cash transactions on the bus as much as possible.
Marie-Anne Lepathy