Latest update April 24th, 2026 12:40 AM
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Need for additional minibus zone on WCD
By Rustom Seegopaul
Commuters travelling from the West Coast of Demerara to Georgetown are expressing the need for at least one additional minibus zone to be instituted on their side of the river, since there is often confusion with minibuses which are driven directly into Georgetown and those which are only taken up to the Vreed-en-Hoop stelling.
Many commuters have said that oftentimes, operators of the city-bound minibuses refuse to travel up to the stelling. Passengers who need to go there are forced to walk from the junction to the stelling.
Speaking with this newspaper, persons said that even though they make sure they ask the minibus conductor if the vehicle would be travelling up to the stelling, they are left at the Vreed-en-Hoop junction, since many of the operators decide that they do not want to travel up to the stelling.
Similarly, many Route 32 (Georgetown/Parika) minibuses leaving Georgetown only travel up to Vreed-en-Hoop, inconveniencing passengers who need to travel down the Coast. This often happens when there are not many Route 32 minibuses at the minibus park in Stabroek Market.
This is especially true at nights, principally after 21:00 hours.
“If I see a (Route) 32 minibus, I hustle to get inside of it,” said a passenger, “but many times after I get in, they (operators) tell me that it is only going to Vreed-en-Hoop.” She continued to say that if there were different zones, it would make things a lot easier for commuters to identify the terminus of the minibus.
There have been repeated calls for Zone 32 (Georgetown/Parika) to be divided into two separate zones; one travelling from Georgetown to Vreed-en-Hoop and another that will only travel from Georgetown to the West Coast Demerara.
Meanwhile, minibus operators explained that many times it is not feasible for them to travel up to the stelling. “If I got a full load of passengers who want to go to town,” said a minibus driver, “and I go to the stelling to drop off one passenger, many people end up getting off there, and I lose money.”
Other drivers said that the traffic light at the Vreed-en-Hoop stelling also deters them from going to the stelling, when they are bound for Georgetown, since the light usually catches them when they are leaving the stelling.
Some of the operators, who only travel to Vreed-en-Hoop at night, said that the main reason they do this is because they live in Vreed-en-Hoop and they usually take a load as they are travelling home, when they have finished working for the day.
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