29 BRTC buses serve passengers as train services halted across Bangladesh

At least 29 buses of the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation, or BRTC, have been serving as alternative transports, taking rail passengers to different destinations as train services were suspended across the country after a work stoppage by the railway running staff.

The BRTC buses left train stations from morning to 2:30pm, bound for different destinations on Tuesday.

As many as 11 buses left the Kamalapur Railway Station for Kishoreganj, Khulna, Jashore, Rangpur, Jamalpur, Brahmanbaria, Rajshahi and Mymensingh.

Eight buses ran from the Airport Railway Station along the Motijheel, Gazipur, Tangail and Mymensingh routes.

From Chattogram Railway Station, five buses left for Sylhet, Dhaka and Brahmanbaria.

Another four buses ran to Khulna, Naogaon, and Santahar from the Bogura and Syedpur Railway Stations.

One bus went to Sylhet from the Cumilla Railway Station.

BRTC Public Relations Officer Mostakim Bhuiyan confirmed the information.

Md Amzad Hossain got on a bus to go to Netrokona from Dhaka. The private service worker told bdnews24.com: “We’re travelling by bus as train service has been halted. I don’t like bus journeys and that’s why I bought a train ticket. Now I have no option but to travel by bus.”

“I came to Kamalapur [Station] to go home. I bought the ticket two days ago. Now I am informed that there will be no train,” said Md Sourav Hossain, a passenger on board a bus going to Sylhet.

“They shouldn’t have sold the tickets if there was no train service. In that case, we could have avoided the trouble, and traveled at our own convenience,” Sourav said.

In a press statement on Tuesday, the railway ministry said that BRTC buses would take passengers to Chattogram, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Khulna, Cumilla, Bogura and Mymensingh from the Kamalapur and Airport Railway Stations.

Train services across the country have been suspended as Bangladesh Railway’s running staff opted for a work stoppage to push for a list of unmet demands, including the addition of running allowances in their basic pay for pension calculations and gratuity benefits.

The BRTC bus service will be available until further notice, the railway ministry said in its press statement.