In the afternoon of Tuesday, 24 January 2018, officers of the APTPRA bus company that has had a monopoly on regular passenger bus service to the Punta Cana area announced after a meeting with National Transport Institute (Intrant) officers that it would hold on its work stoppage to give time to talks with Intrant. A recent resolution by the National Transport Institute (Intrant) authorized the Metro bus company to regularly transport passengers to Cap Cana and has created a transport conflict in the eastern part of the country. The Association of Bus Owners for Public Transport in the Province of La Altagracia (APTPRA) has warned that only the reversal of the Metro route authorization would stop the strike.
The APTPRA bus company had announced a full work stoppage for Wednesday, 24 January 2018 to protest the authorization. The company up to now has maintained a monopoly on commuter bus transport between Santo Domingo and Punta Cana.
APTPRA spokesman, Manolo Ramírez had said the work stoppage would be indefinite until the Intrant reversed the route authorization. The Intrant authorized Metro to provide regular passenger bus service from Cap Cana, in southern Punta Cana, to the National District four times a day. Up to this year, Metro had only been able to transport light cargo (packages) to the Punta Cana area.
Manolo Ramírez, head of the Association of Tourist Transport company, warns that they are ready to maintain the strike, threatening to even affect the Punta Cana International Airport. He had threatened some 3,000 transport vehicles would be removed from service from 6am on Wednesday, 24 January, affecting ground transport in the whole eastern region.
Already, on Monday, 22 January 2018, the APTPRA transport workers in the area blocked the Coral Highway and broke windows in Metro buses that had begun to serve the route following the Intrant permission.
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Diario Libre
Diario Libre
24 January 2018
