By Matovu A. Twaha gulftoday.ae
Many passengers still cough up over Dhs10 on a taxi trip from places such as Al Wahda Road to Jubail Bus Terminal for a service already put in place by the Sharjah Transport Corporation (STC).
From April 1, the STC Inter City bus management announced they had opened up ticket selling points on various bus stops within the city for passengers enroute to Dubai.
The beneficiaries are the users of routes 113 (Sharjah-Al Qusais); 111 (Sharjah International Airport linking Dubai) and 308 (Sharjah-Jebel Ali-Al Qouz).
When The Gulf Today went to see the ticket selling points along Al Wahda Road and other points that were announced, no one was around.
This reporter asked some people in the area where could tickets for buses enroute to Dubai be bought and everybody was directing him to Jubail Bus Station.
“We didn’t erect booths; passengers just have pay upon boarding – similar to how it is done with intra-city buses,” the manager of Inter City Buses at the STC, Adel Al Hosany told The Gulf Today.
The absence of any passengers headed beyond Sharjah borders further manifested the ignorance of passengers of this service.
This reporter engaged one of the people waiting for a bus near Max Mall along Al Wahda asking him where he had bought the ticket. “I’m not going to Dubai, I’m going to Al Nahda. If you want to go Dubai, you’ll have to take the bus from Rolla,” he said. And he was standing under the stop for bus Nos.8, 308 and 272.
The bus stops for Route 113 (Sharjah-Al Qusais) are at the First Industrial Road, the Third (J&P) the Tenth (Gecko), the Eleventh (Roundabout bin Laden), and the Fifteenth (the National Paints).
Other two points were added on King Faisal Street for buses No.308 heading to Jebel Ali and Al Quoz. The areas are at Petrol Station Adnoc, and Emax, while along Al Wahda Street, three bus stops were added at the City Centre, Max, and at Al Khan Bridge on the same route.
