FEWER bus passengers were observed going out of town on New Year’s Eve compared to the Christmas holiday in south Cebu.
During peak dates last December 23 to 25 there about 118,000 passengers at the Cebu South Bus Terminal.
A heavy turnout was still noted yesterday but it was similiar to the volume of passengers during regular days, said Eddie Dusavan Sr, assistant head of the CSBT.
Passenger traffic on December 29 was bigger than the crowds on December 30 and 31, he noted.
“Perhaps this is the the reason there are only a few last-minute passengers. They left earlier because of the long vacation,” he said in Cebuano. Jan. 1, a holiday, falls on a Friday, opening a long weekend.
Additional security personnel were posted since December 29 and a medical team was placed on standby.
Dusavan said terminal management had only two major problems in the holiday season.
Many passengers left inadvertently behind belongings in taxis and, second, there were many buses but only a few available drivers.
Dusavan said that although closed circuit television sets are installed in the terminal, some drivers don’t bother to surrender lost-and-found passenger belongings to the terminal management.
On the lack of drivers, he said that some bus lines require their drivers who finish a route to relax for at least three hours before they are allowed to drive again as a safety measure to reduce the risk of fatigue-related road accidents.