Slow business for bus terminals on Raya eve

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KOTA KINABALU: The usual “balik kampung” crowd for the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration was missing at the central bus terminal in Inanam yesterday with ticket counters empty except for the staff manning them.

It was believed that most of the residents in the east coast opted to return to their hometowns earlier for Hari Raya this year, which could possibly explain why the bus station was not busy yesterday.

However, an employee of an express company which plies the Tawau, Semporna and Lahad Datu routes lamented that business was not as vibrant as compared to past years.

“In the days leading to Hari Raya, the bus station would normally be packed with passengers. Taxis can be seen frequently dropping off their passengers and there were even instances when passengers would sleep at the station to make sure that they get on the bus home,” the Trus Edar employee said.

Though he declined to be named, the man did offer information on the situation and said that so far, only the Sandakan route was doing well as the their buses are usually full.

“I believe that it is because many of those from the east coast have their own cars now and prefer to drive back themselves as it is cheaper that way,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ruby Ibrahim, who works for Madsahirun Express which plies the Kota Kinabalu-Semporna route, also said that business had been slow despite it being the eve of Hari Raya.

“For us, our bus to Semporna today is full but I observed that it has been rather quiet these last few days,” she said.

Ruby also agreed that many of those who used to travel by express bus in the past now own their own vehicles and preferred to drive to their hometowns themselves.

In the case of the company, Ali Topan, business has been good as all their buses departed with full load of passengers.

“Our last trip is at 6.30pm today and we will be taking a break until August 11,” Marrysya Nasir, who looks after the ticket counter, said.

A check by The Borneo Post at 10am yesterday showed that the bus terminal was quite empty except for a few passengers, some of whom had booked their tickets in advance for fear of not being able to get a seat for the journey home.

Among them were Lily Noor and her husband, Hendra Kurniawan, who work in Kuala Lumpur and do not get many opportunities to return to their hometown.

Lily, who has been living in the federal capital for 10 years, said that she is on 12 days’ leave and is excited to be returning home to Tawau.

“I had returned home a few times for family emergencies and travelled by air during those times. Now that we have some time, we decided to travel by road this time,” she said, adding that they will be celebrating Hari Raya in her hometown even though her husband is from Lahad Datu.

For Keningau-born Samsul Suhatman, he will celebrating Hari Raya at his wife’s hometown of Sandakan.

“This is the first time that we will be celebrating Hari Raya in Sandakan as we used to celebrate it in Keningau,” he said, adding that he preferred to take the bus instead of driving as it was a long journey.