by Clynt Ridgell, KUAM News Thursday, June 01, 2006 Subscribe to Clynt's newsfeed   E-mail this article Printable version KUAM Toolbar Web Widgets Get RSS headlines

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Across the nation, Americans are feeling the pinch of mounting gas prices. And while there's a movement to search for alternatives sources of fuel, there are other means to alleviate the pain at the pump - like utilizing public transit. Today KUAM received a bus pass to test the reliability of the island's mass transit system.

My quest to get ride on a Guam Mass Transit Authority bus started with a quick phone call to that agency. The person we spoke to told us we could get a copy of the bus schedule at their office in the Chamorro Village. When we got there the office was locked the lights were off and there was a sign on the door that read 'Out To Lunch'. After knocking on the door for a while we decided to come back after lunch.

At about 1:15 in the afternoon we came back and found that the office had been reopened. We got a bus schedule and then began asking about their hours of service. An employee said that she was away to use the restroom, adding, "I have to lock the door and go walk to the other side because there's no restroom facility here."

After picking up a bus schedule my cameraman and I decided to try and catch a ride on the 1:30 bus to Mangilao, when we noticed that there was no bus stop and no shelter. It was raining at this point and if it weren't for Bernice Toves Regala, who was also waiting for the 1:30 bus to Mangilao, we would've been soaked. Bernice has been riding the bus for five years now and says that the everyday bus riders are accustomed to seeking shelter. "We are also local people of Guam we don't have to be tourists to have a bus shelter like them," she said, "but I wish that the government would do something about a bus shelter because we don't have a bus shelter here."

It wasn't long before other bus patrons showed up seeking shelter under a canopy at the backside of one of the shops. At 1:45pm our bus had not arrived yet and it was at this time that a fifteen-year patron of GMTA, Edna Arellano, asked me to call the agency's Dispatch Office and try to find out what happened to her 1:30 bus to Agana Heights. After not getting any answer initially, I decided to call Dispatch again a little after 2pm, this time for the bus that Regala and I were waiting on. A female GMTA representative I spoke with gave incorrect information about bus schedule, indicating that the bus would have arrived by 1:30.

The 1:30 bus to Mangilao didn't show up at 1:30, in fact it never arrived at all, at least while we were there. Instead, a full hour later, Regala, myself and other bus patrons gave up hope and decided to catch a ride on the Express Bus to the Micronesia Mall.