By Seedy Jobe
As Gambians prepare for the Tobaski holiday, the country’s primary public transport provider is planning a major expansion of service to accommodate the annual surge of travelers heading to provincial towns and villages.
The Gambia Transport Service Company (GTSC) will deploy more than 70 buses each day leading up to the festival, according to Amadou Drammeh, the company’s operations director. That figure represents a sharp increase from the company’s typical daily operations.
“GTSC is a household name in the country,” Mr. Drammeh said in an interview on QTV’s This Morning program on Tuesday. “We are a public transport company that ferries everybody to their destination depending on their choice.”
Speaking ahead of the holiday, which traditionally prompts a large-scale return to hometowns, Mr. Drammeh said the company routinely strains its capacity to meet demand.
“Everybody would want to go to their respective villages — villages where they have their mothers, family, and siblings that they want to share this festive period with, most particularly Tobaski,” he said.
He attributed the steady rise in ridership to GTSC’s reputation for reliability and relatively low fares. “We have given them that track record that when they come, their travel is assured,” he said. “So every year we see people come, and the number is always on the increase. This year too is not an exception.”
Under the holiday plan, Mr. Drammeh said the company would expand from its normal schedule of roughly 20 buses serving routes like the South Bank corridor. The additional 50 vehicles, he said, are intended “to cater for the space in between.”
To address safety concerns that often accompany holiday travel surges, Mr. Drammeh emphasized strict engineering protocols. Every bus, he said, undergoes inspection after each trip, regardless of distance. For Tobaski, management has ordered additional checks.
“An organized transport company would have a schedule, a roster that you depart by hours, and the crew would be there, the buses would be available,” he said. “When the time is up, we leave. We don’t just leave as the usual garages.”
He added that the company has introduced extra 30-minute departures between its standard hourly schedule. “I can comfortably tell you we would have on a daily basis 70 buses leaving, and the engineering department has looked into all those buses — the technical part, the wear and tear — and all that’s supposed to be,” he said.
Mr. Drammeh reiterated GTSC’s commitment to providing safe, reliable and affordable service during the holiday. “We would want to come to your aid as well,” he said, “to take you to your villages to enjoy this festive period with your family in peace and harmony.”
Comments are closed.