Transit Systems: Terminals

  Geography of Transport Systems define terminals as "any location where freight and passengers either originate, terminate, or is handled in the transportation process." Although City Gate was previously mentioned and it is a terminal, in my opinion City Gate is the whole and the following image illustrates the subsets that make up City Gate.

  City Gate is largely stated in reference to PTSC buses, however these structures, rather structure is the terminal for maxi taxis, and is adjoined to and make up City Gate. Attached to this structure are several staircases, each a terminal from Port-of-Spain to a another urban area. On afternoons between 2:30pm and 5:30pm, the platforms of these terminals are packed with people looking to get a seat on a maxi taxi to get home. Pushing and skipping is encountered at those peak hours. 


  Due to the unscheduled arrival and departure of maxi taxis, the notion by Rodrigue et al (2013) that the time passengers spend on terminal are brief is not true of Trinidad as one may spend several minutes to get a maxi taxi. One may say maybe there needs to be a schedule for maxi taxis, but when one is in heels, has on 6 pieces of clothing in the hot weather and tired, waiting for a maxi to arrive would not sit well with Trinidadians, and they would rather shove for a seat to quickly reach home. Alternative public transport therefore need to be looked into to facilitate the timely movement of persons in and out of POS.

Reference

·                     Rodrigue, J., C. Comtois, B. Slack.2013.The geography of transport systems.3rd ed. London and New York: Routledge. http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch6en/conc6en/ch6c1en.html. (accessed February 10, 2014).