Posted on 01/01/2004 3:07:30 AM PST by JohnHuang2
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - When Baghdad fell to invading U.S. forces, some Iraqi drivers managed to protect their double-decker buses from shelling and looters. Now they're doing a booming business, running the routes of their choosing.
In the early days after the fall of Saddam Hussein on April 9, the remains of double-deckers were strewn on highways. Some were gutted by fire and others were stripped of seats, mirrors, windows and engines.
Drivers of the National Bus Company say only 80 double-deck buses were salvaged from the original fleet of 300 that the former regime purchased from China at the end of 2001.
Driver Alawi al-Iqabi does not park his red double-decker bus No. 8 in a garage when he leaves work. He keeps it outside his house on a narrow, sewage-filled alley. Keeping a bus on a street is a risk because of security concerns.
Al-Iqabi and fellow driver Ahmed Abdul-Sada al-Aboudi, 32, who lives around the corner from al-Iqabi's in the south Baghdad suburb of Um el-Ma'alef, have their own informal neighborhood watch to protect their buses. The drivers say they get up at night to check if their buses are still there and neighbors keep watch as much as possible.
Drivers say they pay the equivalent of about $2.90 a day to the bus company from the profit they make from the buses.
Bus fares are now four times as high, but still not even a penny. Drivers who used to get $2 a month now make $58.
Before the war, drivers worked 16 hours a day. Now they work three to four hours and go home around 2 in the afternoon, citing the lack of security.
There's no guarantee that they can always find diesel for their bus. Sometimes, drivers stay home five days in a row because of the gas crisis.
On April 9 when Baghdad feel, al-Iqabi parked his car in the bus company's garage and left Baghdad.
But when the father of eight, who has been a bus driver for 20 years, returned a week later, he found his bus in one of the streets, stripped of most of its seats, mirrors, glasses and batteries.
He replaced the stolen seats with those from looted buses, bought new mirrors, batteries, and fixed the engine - and went back to work.
Al-Aboudi left home in his bus at 6 a.m. April 9 but could not reach the bus company as all roads were blocked. So he returned home two hours later. That's where he has parked his bus ever since.
``The company is happy that we are taking the buses home and looking after them,'' al-Aboudi said.
``The bus is our livelihood,'' said al-Iqabi. ``We take care of them as we'd care for our children.''
Not everyone is happy with the way buses are running these days. Passengers complain that drivers do not stop at designated bus stops and they charge whatever they want.
``Everyone does as he pleases,'' said Amer Ibrahim, 33. ``Journeys take a long time because they stop wherever the passengers ask them to do. There are no rules.''
Ali Hamid al-Shumari, a 33-year-old bus driver, said he was roughed up once for refusing to heed a passenger's request to let him out along the bus route.
``We don't feel safe at all,'' he said.
Happy New Year my friend!
John you and I know one worldwide busdriver hellhole ... poverty, grievous wounding and workplace death .. can be written off as an anomoly. But TWO horrific cases of widespread wartorn wounding of 6.1% salary insulted busdrivers: - that, sir, is a quagmire.
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