At various bus stops around Cairo this week, drivers and passengers protested higher fares. Yasmine El-Rashidi reports At scattered downtown bus stops on Monday, public and microbus drivers lashed out at each other, outraged at the higher ticket prices that had suddenly come into effect. Tickets for microbuses operated by the private Greater Cairo Bus Company have been raised by 25 piastres, in reaction to the sudden fifty per cent increase in the price of diesel fuel ( solar ). The increase took fares up to 50 and 75 piastres. In the mid-afternoon heat and rush-hour traffic, tension was high, with ticket buyers infuriated, and drivers barely able to cope. The shock at having to shell out more fare money overnight translated into a series of fistfights around town. "For these big shots [decision-makers], 25 piastres is nothing," complained microbus driver Mohamed Hassan. "For us, for our passengers, it makes a big difference. Most families have at least four people in them, and if you're only doing one round-trip a day, that's LE4, six days a week, which adds up. By the end of the month, your expenses are much higher. People don't know what to do -- everyone is annoyed, everyone is frustrated. All this aggression is the result of helplessness." Diesel has long been the most widely used form of fuel in the public transport system, as well as the most heavily subsidised, with its price having been forcibly kept at 40 piastres per litre for the past decade. For the first time in 11 years last Friday, that price rose by fifty per cent, to 60 piastres per litre. Analysts said the increase was part of a government attempt to balance out the loses that will be incurred by the recent tax cuts -- a figure initially expected to total LE3 billion in annual revenues. (see related article, p.5) But despite the increase, the heavy subsidies mean that the cost per litre of diesel is still extremely low -- some 120 piastres per litre below the fuel's actual cost. By raising their own fees in response, the owners of private microbus companies were described by the press as being "opportunistic". In Luxor and Aswan private bus companies have also reported fare increases. "What do they expect us to do?" asked driver Abu Mohsen. "Pay the difference out of our own pocket? I used to fill up for LE8 at a time. Now I have to pay LE12 for the same amount of fuel. We have two choices; either the customers pay, or the company pays. Naturally, the company is not going to take the burden. So who is left to deal with these disconcerted passengers? Us [the drivers] of course." Officials at the Greater Cairo Bus Company would not speak on the record to Al-Ahram Weekly. But on an early morning route starting at Shubra's Ahmed Helmy station and continuing across town, driver Hussein Abul-Haif spoke to the Weekly about the company and how people feel. "At the end of the day there are a few people at the top, and everyone else is in the same situation as us," he explained of the hierarchy. "How do you think most of the employees at any of these transportation companies get to work? By bus of course. It's one of those situations where you can't really do anything." The passengers seemed to agree with that sentiment. "What are we going to do?" asked one young man heading to his day job as an office assistant in Imbaba. "Go on strike like in Europe? They can afford to do that -- they have unions that support them and they make decent salaries. Here people live day to day -- you can't afford to take a single day off. So the government has put us in this situation, and it's the reality -- there's nothing you can do about it, because no matter what we do, the government isn't going to reverse the decision." The irony, perhaps, is that as a result of the sizeable customs reductions that were approved by President Hosni Mubarak last week, import tariffs on vehicles (buses included) have dropped by up to 60 per cent. "The people that own these buses are very happy of course. As are all those who have money. The only thing that has gone up is public transportation -- so the only people affected by these tax cuts are the general public who can't afford the cars. Sometimes I feel like the decision makers forget who makes up the majority of the population," one passenger said.
