As the Christmas and New Year holidays ended on Monday, passengers were stranded as they trooped out yesterday to return to Port Harcourt to resume work.

The Tide reports that fewer commercial  busses and Skybank vehicles were on the roads for the commtuers  who turned out in large numbers along Owerri-Elele-Isiokpo-Port Harcourt roués.

It was observed that it took up to two hours for a bus to arrive at bus stops, leaving commuters stranded for many hours at various locations.

Some of the passengers who spoke to The Tide urged the state government to make enough buses available especially during festive periods to cope with the anticipated heavy human traffic.

One of the commuters, Nwobruoma Amadi, lauded the state government’s initiative on mass transport services especially the private public partnership scheme with Skybank, but urged the Rivers State government to ensure that these services are extended to Port Harcourt city suburbs, like Elele-Isiokpo woute, Ahoada-Emohuaa route, Degema-Abonnema route, Eleme-Bori route as Oyigbo route is already in operation and mostly at the festive periods.

According to him, “most people have been waiting for over two hours because of the rush, and most buses were already filled up on arrival at the bus stop. And as a result of that they hike the price for over 50 per cent leaving the commuters with no choice than to succumb to their wish, to meet up jobs”he added.

Mrs Alice Wonu, a civil servant, lamented over none availability of commercial vehicles and its associated hike in price, saying that the act is deliberate and dubious as there are no scarcity of fuel in the country only a temporary out flow of passengers which will fizzle out in less than no time can not warrant high charges on transport fares the way it is now” she called on the leadership of the National Union of Road Transport Workers of Nigeria (NURTN) to call their members to order.