Students will not be spared the increased transportation costs along the East-West corridor that will take effect come March 1 according to President of the Route 2 Maxi Taxi Association, Linus Philip who said his organisation never considered a special fare for schoolchildren.
"Sometimes you run into problems with those things. You have to go and covey a separate (fare) structure, number one. And then, we have people querying who is schoolchildren, who is not. Some people putting on uniform they eh supposed to put on. I think we going to run into problem with that," Philip told The Student Press in a telephone interview.
President of the National Parent Teachers Association, Zena Ramatali said a special fare for students in uniform will help ease the financial burden from parents. Until this can be discussed, she said, students should make full use of the other transportation options.
"I would encourage more students to use the bus. Once we can have buses running on time, I believe it is safer," Ramatali said.
Specially-marked maxi taxis operate a school bus service as part of the Ministry of Education and Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) school transport programme.
The programme is available to students free of charge if there is a request from a school's principal.
Lance Bally, a third-former at Trinity College, East said he's been able to save three dollars almost every day from Arima to Trincity taking the school bus (maxi).
Lance said once seats are available when the bus reaches him, he is sure to get to school on time.
For those students who are not able to get onto a school bus, they can also access the regular PTSC bus service for free using 'coloured tickets'.
School transport coordinator at PTSC, Carlton Jackson said tickets are made available free of charge at a school once students make a request to their principal.
The tickets can be used for the transit (air-conditioned) buses as well as the non-air conditioned buses. They can also use the shuttle service that takes passengers from Maloney and La Horquetta to places where public transport is more accessible.
Jackson hopes more students will make use of the free services offered courtesy the education ministry now that maxi taxis have increased fares.
But some students who go to school outside of their districts feel a special fare would have helped in cases where taking a maxi is unavoidable.
Chantel George is having a hard time picturing how she's going to manage to make it to school. She pays almost $40 in passage everyday from Diego Martin to school at St Augustine Secondary Comprehensive.
Most of the way she has to commute via taxi.
"My parents will be glad this is my last year," the upper-sixer said.
It is money they must find everyday to send just one of their three children to school. Thankfully, she said, her other siblings go to school in Port of Spain.
"It's unjust. Not everybody might be able to afford it, 'cause as you can see most people travelling so the outcome will be very negative."
Even for someone starting out in the East one more dollar makes a big difference on a student's budget, said Wynell Nathan, a third-former at Chantel's former school, St James Secondary.
She and three members of her family will have to pay seven dollars from La Horquetta for Port of Spain from next month and for the next two years until she graduates, if no special student fare is introduced.
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