At the bus station, a real drama: the ancients were not taken on the bus even when they were crying and begging.

Prayers and tears

Some of the Panevėžys people who rushed to Vilnius on Monday morning did not leave anything. A bus from Šiauliai via Panevysžys to the capital closed the door in front of them. While some women tried to soften the driver’s heart with pleas and tears, they were not allowed to enter. At the Santara clinics, they were already scheduled for surgeries and doctor visits. For cancer patients, there was nothing left but to take a taxi. Residents of Panevėžys, who became observers of the extraordinary event, did not hide their outrage that people of respectable age were forced to deposit a lot of money for taxi drivers and forget the risk of contracting a dangerous virus: a taxi went to the capital in five .

As the Panevėžys resident, who saw the drama at the bus station, said, the image he saw did not allow him to fall asleep even at night. According to the interlocutor, on Monday morning at Panevėžys station, about twenty people marched at the Vilnius crossing.

At approximately eight o’clock, a bus arriving from Šiauliai to Vilnius arrived at the scene. A crowd of passengers immediately flocked to him. The driver gave instructions to get on first to those who had bought electronic tickets in advance.

“The older people didn’t even understand what tickets the driver was talking about, no one sold them at the bus station. The younger people, who had electronic tickets, stuck together and didn’t even let others get on the bus. The driver said no there were more seats, even though the bus was definitely half empty. A woman was still trying to get in and see how many vacancies there were, but the driver blocked the road and abruptly pushed him out, “said the Panevėžys resident, who observed everything close up.

One of the women, still not getting on the bus, began to cry desperately. She told the driver that it was vital to go to Vilnius; he was planning an oncology operation at the Santara clinics.

Another woman assured her that she was also waiting at the Santara clinics, as a second coronavirus vaccine administered to her oncology patient. According to a witness to the incident, the people tried to get on the bus without keeping their distance.

“The older adults begged and sincerely cried to meet them on the bus. But the driver was speechless. Expressing that he couldn’t help anyone, he simply closed the door and left. Maybe I couldn’t have done it any other way, because if at least one old man had been taken and the others would have fallen on the bus, ”said the woman who witnessed the event.

The youths left

Passengers who were not accepted onto the bus, according to the interlocutor, rushed to the taxis waiting at the station entrances. The four of them managed to agree that a taxi would take them to Vilnius. The taxi driver asked for 100 euros for the trip. Panevėžys claims to have seen that more people consulted another taxi driver. There are only three buses a day from Panevėžys to Vilnius, at 8, 12 and 18 o’clock, so there is no guarantee that places will appear elsewhere.

“It would be fun if it weren’t for the grain. Young people ride in a half-empty bus and older people in a taxi. Retirees, cancer patients were forced to pay huge sums of money and travel crowded. After all, they didn’t go to the capital to have fun, but to receive treatment. And that is called dignified old age, “said the interlocutor.

According to her, this is not the first case in which those who do not pay to buy an electronic ticket do not get on the buses. One woman, who went to the capital by bus that Monday, said she had also had such a painful lesson: a few days ago there was no place on the bus from Vilnius to Panevėžys. Now it takes care of getting an electronic ticket in advance.

“How do those old people buy an electronic ticket if they don’t have children, don’t interact with the young? The image I saw shocked me greatly. If I had to go to the Santara clinic for surgery and not get on the bus, it would be a tragedy. People are already concerned about their health, and here’s another glimmer. It is incomprehensible what such quarantine bans can lead to, ”Panevėžys was terrified.

Strength requirements

The bus of the Šiauliai company Busturas did not receive all the passengers in Panevėžys on Monday morning. The company’s administrator, Dalia Kancevičienė, stated that no complaints had been received regarding this incident.

“We have not received any complaints about people not reaching their destination. But now that many bus trips have been canceled, these situations can occur,” said a spokeswoman for Busturo.

According to the manager, the driver did the right thing by not accepting all the passengers. The same procedure applies throughout Lithuania, as only half of the bus seats can be occupied and passengers sit in chess order to maintain the required distances. If there are no more seats, passengers can no longer be accepted. Tickets are on sale as there are many seats available.

“If the bus has 50 seats, only 25 tickets are sold. These are the quarantine requirements. In order for people to be sure that they will get a seat, they buy tickets online,” said D. Kancevičienė.

Promises more trips

Arnoldas Gražys, director of the company’s Panevėžys bus fleet, said that during the quarantine the company canceled its intercity trips.

“Due to the quarantine, many flights have been stopped, only one other carrier has left several routes, so it happens that the passengers do not fit. The medical facilities are now updating their services and scheduled surgeries, so there are really a lot of people going to the same Santara clinics. The quarantine is gradually being released, there is a high probability that there will be more cases of this type, ”says A. Gražys.

Still, carriers are in no rush to resume travel because it is not profitable. According to A. Gražis, if all the vacancies on the bus were filled by passengers going, for example, from Panevėžys to Kaunas, the trip would be worth it, but often those places are also filled by those who come much closer, he says Ramygala. .

“The intercity bus service is not a social function. It is a business and if it is not profitable, it is natural that it is not carried out,” explained the director.

According to him, an e-ticket always guarantees that there will be a place for that person on the bus. However, so far, young people are taking advantage of this opportunity to buy tickets. A frequent elderly person does not know how to use the Internet or electronic banking. A. Gražys inquires that if the quarantine is free, intercity travel will resume.

“Already this week, maybe even Thursday, we plan to resume one or two trips to Vilnius. If the government loosens the restrictions, we will try to execute more. I have a great knowledge of people who have difficulty reaching their destination. The quarantine caused inconvenience to all ”, explained the manager of the Panevėžys bus fleet.

Catch all the passengers

Taxi drivers claim that thinner intercity trips didn’t bring them leaner bread. Henrik, who has been driving a taxi for several decades and has been waiting for passengers at the entrances of the bus station, said customers asking to be transported to another city are very rare.

“It just came to our attention then. There are practically no passengers during the quarantine, every order is important to us,” Henrik said.

Currently, the main request is transportation to the properties in the area. But, according to the driver, such a business is hampered by movement restrictions.

“We can leave the city. But when you have to return, already check. I took the boy from Šilagalis, but I landed him at the post because he lives in the district municipality. I recently had to transport a man to Palanga. A doctor who he worked in the Klaipėda hospital had an accident during the snow and now there are no buses to Klaipėda from Panevėžys. He asked me to take him away. He had all the necessary documents, so we freely went through the publications, “said Henrik.

As his colleague managed to take up to four passengers to Vilnius, he himself is surprised. After all, according to the requirements, the car cannot have more than two passengers.

“I would not have risked it. I know that the driver himself is already infected with coronavirus, the chances of him contracting it are very low. But it seems really strange to me when a bus does not accept passengers, because it has to keep distances, but in five and all they go by taxi from different homes ”, the taxi driver was surprised.