PESHAWAR:With introduction of modern commuting facilities including the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), decades old wagons, a common source of public transportation has been pushed towards the brink of extinction in Peshawar, a survey revealed on Friday.
Once considered a cheapest mode of commuting in the city was now deemed redundant as passengers prefer to travel in air-conditioned and specious BRT buses that ply on signal-free routes.
On the other hand, these wagons have also been replaced by the comfortable buses on long routes.
Talking to this scribe, a wagon driver Shehzad Mir said the number of these wagons have reduced to dozens from hundreds. These wagons, he said not only used to ply on city routes but also on inter-districts routes adding with introduction of modern buses and private taxis hundreds of wagon drivers have lost their jobs or moved to other professions.
Another driver said with the introduction of BRT many of the wagon drivers were left with no option but to abandon their job as they found no passenger on wagon routes. He demanded of the provincial government to accommodate the jobless wagon drivers in some other sectors.
However when asked some of the passengers said they have got rid of the unsafe and uneasy public transport with the initiation of BRT. They said having no option, they had to travel in congested and unsafe wagons in the past.
The passengers were thankful to the provincial government for providing them with such a state-of-the-art commuting facility in the shape of BRT.