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Today, he told us that the increase will allow him to make better profit margins, with which he is publicly promising to improve the fleet of his buses:

Sergio Chuc, Owner - Westline Bus Service
"With the old bus fares it was rough, because as you know the price of fuel has gone up tremendously over the last two and a half decades since the prices were adjusted. So, basically it was hand to mouth and you could see the type of equipment that was out there. It's difficult to get better equipment if there wasn't an adjustment in fares. Now that the price has been adjusted, I certainly as the owner of Westline will see that my fleet gets improve, so that we could give a better service to the commuters. I must say that when I got into this business, the fuel was at $11 per gallon, it has gone down a little bit. It is $9. But when these fares that was put in place back in 1991, I got into the fuel business as a fuel station dealer in 1999 and back then we were paying $2.57 per gallon for Diesel and I showed those documentations to the chief transport officer, to the minister, to the CEO so that they understood that there must have been an adjustment in fares for the industry to continue and for one, Westline pledges that we will improve on our fleets, because that is what the commuter are clamoring for. They are saying yes, they don't mind paying the extra $1 that has been increased, buts they need a better ride."

So, what about this ticketing system which will stop drivers and conductors from overloading buses with standees? As we told you, the bus operators have committed to activating it, but if there is not strict enforcement of the no-standees policy by the traffic department, the bad service will just continue. We asked Chuc about that:

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Its always crowded, you have to stand up. How do you all proposed to fix something like that when there is an overload in one specific bus run and some commuters are forced to stand in the hallways which If I am not mistaken is against the traffic rules?"

Sergio Chuc, Owner - Westline Bus Service
"We made a commitment with the ministry that if the prices were adjusted that we would work quickly to put in a ticketing system. I believe that with the ticketing system, we won't have that issue with the overcrowding anymore."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"And so what happens to those persons who would have been forced to stand on the bus and this ticketing system put into place where they can't board that bus. How will their transport needs be met?"

Sergio Chuc, Owner - Westline Bus Service
"That's easy, because we always have the standby buses that if this bus is full, then the other one takes up the load. That's no problem to address."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"You made this public commitment to improve your fleet of your Westline buses, who's to say that some sort of financial difficulties you fall into, forces you even with this increase you can't make the adjustments you need to invest and that you go back on your word."

Sergio Chuc, Owner - Westline Bus Service
"The commuters are there to decide that, because if we are not providing the service - remember every day when Westline takes off at 5am, at 5:15am there is a James. We move at 6am, at 6:15 there is a James. We move at 7am, there is a James at 7:15, so the competition is basically there for this route. So the commuters will keep us in check."

Police launched a ticketing operation this morning at the Palotti High School roundabout to try to discourage bus drivers and conductors from overloading buses.