Tough moment for upcountry travellers at Ubungo terminal

Dar es Salaam. Scores of travellers for continued to be stranded at Ubungo Bus Terminal (UBT) yesterday over lack of enough buses.

By noon yesterday, many passengers travelling to the northern regions of Kilimanjaro and Arusha had lost hope of catching bus.

Those who managed to get transport had to dig deep into their pocket to buy tickets and food at highly inflated prices as they continued to wait for buses to travel to their respective regions.

Mr Robert Mwalili who was travelling to Morogoro said he arrived at Ubungo bus terminal at 06:00am hoping to start his journey 07:00am but that never happened.

“It is almost 10 o’clock now, I am now forced to spend here in Dar es Salaam the money I planned to use in Morororo to buy food, water and some snacks…so far I have spent Sh7,000,” he said.

“If I don’t get a bus by afternoon, he would have no option but to cancel the trip.,” says another traveller Diana Kennedy.

She bought a ticket since Dec 20 but when she arrived at the bus terminal she was told to wait for hours.

“We have been here with our children from 04:00am up to now and there is no bus. When we asked them to explain they just tell us the buses will be here soon, but we haven’t see any bus for hours.

She urged the government look into the matter and put a proper way of making buses available during festival season.