Fare, not fair!

It’s always a bitter experience on traveling Chennai in a MTC bus. There were many things that make it worst. One among it is now,Fare. Almost, it’s been doubled and the minimum amount of the fare on most of the bus has become Rs.5. Not a big deal, for people like me and many. But there were the some number of people, who just care for small money, will be in trouble. It’s for sure, and I seem to have an incident to proof it.

When I’m traveling my route in a tight crowd, there boarded a very poor man, shocked and shouted at the price of the ticket he’s given. He shocked on the double of the amount, as he normally used to travel with small amount. He’s said, he boarded into a deluxe bus. And that’s it. He started the shouting, screaming and claiming his calculation. He's guessed to be a daily coolie by his arguments. He added, for the extra amount he paid, he might‘ve finished his small Tiffin with tea and samosa. On bottom of his heavy noise, there lives a pity on his position on spending the amount.

Yes, every one can’t pay double the fare. There might be reasons behind like the petrol value rise etc., but just paying the fare double is really unbearable for commons. It can be an increase of some percentage on average of every ticket. Even there were criteria’s like white board, yellow board and green board according to their sophistications. Only the white board bus has the old fare and it's not frequent. Most of the budget people even now prefers the white board bus and waits for it for longtime. Another problem is, most of the Conductor’s “50np Syndrome” & “Set-Rest Ticket collection”. Most of the ticket denominations end with 50 np. If we give a round amount, for sure, we will not get the 50np back. It’s a unwritten rule, for example, if the ticket is 2.50 rs, we need to give 3.00 rs and if we ask the .50 np back from the conductor, he will just stare at you like a worm :D (It happened for me sometime :D, but I used to get it from him). Only solution for this problem is all the tickets can be rounded off, even by increasing it by .50np.

And another interesting point is about the conductor’s “Set-Rest” style at the back of the bus. He never likes to wander and to get the tickets, which ease many persons from not getting the tickets in crowd. In that point, two conductors can be added one at the front. Uhhh!! We have many solutions, but the problem itself doesn’t like it.

Like the many adjustable factors in Chennai, MTC bus is also one among it,by most of the public. But it’s the only travel tool for most of the poor public.