O autocarro que ninguém usava (The bus nobody used)
QECR B1240 palavras
For eleven years, the number 4 bus ran from the station to the industrial estate every twenty minutes. It was almost always empty. Drivers used to joke that they knew their passengers by name, because on a normal morning there were four or five of them.
The obvious answer was to cancel the line, and in March the company announced that it would. Then a woman called Amina, who cleaned offices on the estate, wrote to the local newspaper. Her letter did not ask them to keep the bus. It asked a question: had anybody looked at what time it ran?
Her shift started at six. The first number 4 left the station at seven fifteen. The last one came back at six in the evening, an hour before the late shift finished. In other words, the bus was empty because it never passed when anyone needed it.
The company checked and found she was right. Instead of cancelling the line, they moved it: first bus at half past five, last one at half past eleven at night, and only one bus an hour in the middle of the day, when nobody was travelling anyway.
Six months later the number 4 was carrying about two hundred people a day. It is still not a busy route, and it still costs the company money. But the difference between four passengers and two hundred was not the bus. It was the timetable.
Palavras que talvez não conheças
- industrial estatezona industrial
- shiftturno
- to cancel a linesuprimir uma linha
- timetablehorário
- routepercurso, linha
Perguntas
Respondem-se com o texto à frente. Não é memória: é perceber.
What was the company going to do in March?
Cancel the line — In March the company announced that it would. Mudar o horário veio depois, e em vez de a suprimir.
Amina asked the newspaper to save the bus.
False — Her letter did not ask them to keep the bus. It asked a question: se alguém tinha visto o horário.
Amina's shift started at ___.
six — Her shift started at six, e o primeiro autocarro saía às sete e um quarto: chegava tarde para ela.
Why did the late shift workers not use the bus either?
The last bus left before they finished — The last one came back at six in the evening, an hour before the late shift finished.
The new timetable has more buses at every hour of the day.
False — Começa mais cedo e acaba muito mais tarde, mas a meio do dia passa a um por hora, quando não viaja ninguém.
What is the point of the last sentence?
The service was failing for a reason nobody had checked — The difference between four passengers and two hundred was not the bus. It was the timetable. E o texto diz que continua a custar dinheiro, por isso não fala de rentabilidade.