Influx of passengers expected at bus terminal starting today

Passengers queue up to board a bus at the Cebu South Bus Terminal. (CDN FILE PHOTO)

Bus passengers should brace themselves for the long queue at the Cebu South Bus Terminal (CSBT) starting today.

According to CSBT manager Joey Herrera, the usual number of passengers over a normal weekend is 29,000, but on Wednesday alone, the number of passengers reached 26,000 due to the upcoming holiday rush.

Herrera said he expected the number of passengers to reach as high as 30,000 after lunch today until Saturday morning.

With several long-distance passengers opting to travel by bus after failing to secure vessel tickets, Herrera said that one of his main concerns is how to accommodate them.

Citing a Zamboanga-bound Ceres bus that can only accommodate 45 passengers, Herrera said it has only one trip in a day scheduled at 6 a.m.

Last Tuesday at 11 p.m., around 80 passengers bound to Zamboanga had already waited at the terminal, but they were all accommodated after the Ceres Liner bus management agreed to send an extra bus for the trip.

Herrera said he expected the same scenario today.

Starting yesterday morning, security inside the terminal was beefed up as six members of the Philippine National Police’s Special Weapons and Tactics team were deployed to reinforce the CSBT’s own security personnel.

“Kanang mga CSU (Civil Security Unit) guards or blue guards, na-trained na for bomb detection. Kun naay bag nga ibilin unya kun naa pu’y bomb sa sulod sa bag, they already know what to do,” he said.

Herrera assured the public that they would not allow those two bus drivers, four bus conductors, and four bus helpers who tested positive during a drug test conducted on Tuesday to work pending the results of their confirmatory tests.

Despite this development, Herrera said that there is no reported shortage of CSBT bus personnel at present and that the drug test was even welcomed by bus owners and bus operators.