West Bank taxi drivers protest as ministry reduces service faresTULKAREM (Ma'an) -- Taxi drivers on Monday continued to go on strike in the West Bank protesting reduction in fares which the Palestinian Ministry of Transportation imposed due to a decrease in fuel prices.
In Tulkarem district in the northern West Bank, drivers announced Monday morning the suspension of shuttle services on six main routes including the routes from Tulkarem to Nablus, to Ramallah and the Allenby Bridge's first stop in Jericho.
Speaker of the Tulkarem union of taxi drivers Muawiya Mousa told Ma'an that some 300 service taxi drivers went on strike Monday for the second day.
The strike, he said, would continue indefinitely in protest against the 10 percent reduction in service fares which the Ministry of Transportation announced recently.
He that an agreement was reached between the ministry and the union to raise fares by 10 percent but that did not include all routes. However, the ministry breached the agreement by imposing a 10 percent-rise on all routes, he added.
In Ramallah in the central West Bank, shuttle service drivers who work on the very busy route from Ramallah to Birzeit and to Birzeit University went on strike for one hour Monday morning.
The ministry decided to reduce service fares from 5.5 shekels to 4 shekels. Dozens of students and employees were seen crowded in parking lots as taxi drivers refused to turn on their vehicles.
The limited number of buses which work on the same route were unable to cope with the large number of passengers.
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