Games means pain, not fares, for cabbies

MELBOURNE - Hakan Yangoz is one Melbournian who is not happy with the Commonwealth Games. In fact, he is one of 4000 or so Melbournians who will have no regrets when the Games wind up tomorrow and begin preparing to descend on Delhi in four years.

For the city's taxi drivers - and frequently their passengers - the Games have been one long, frustrating, hole in their business. Last week, when the entire centre of the city was shut down for marathon races and it was all but impossible to penetrate the barricades bisecting its most important thoroughfares, business simply evaporated altogether.

You cant get a job in the city, said Yangoz, one of a long line of cabbies who poured back into the city when the barriers came down to pick up whatever work they could. There are not as many business customers.

Its pretty dead. Road and lane closures, the special blue-painted lanes kept open exclusively for official Games vehicles with an A$80 fine for transgressors, and the moveable feast of barriers that sprout and vanish as events dictate, have made crossing the city an arcane and often impossible art form. A nightmare, said Yangoz.

He said: "It's a nightmare. Before the marathon it was bad, with the marathon it was impossible. Passengers are frustrated as well.

"They just want to get somewhere.They understand that it's not our fault but theyre still frustrated over the delays."

Ravan, who has been driving taxis for more than a year in Melbourne, complained about constant detours: "This afternoon I was given a job in St Kilda from the city but after an hour waiting to try get there I had to give up. When I was offered another one there I refused it. It just wasnt worth it."

Another driver, overhearing the conversation, chips in: "They promised that the Commonwealth Games would be something that was really going to increase business. It just hasn't happened."

The Victorian Government takes a lot of their flak. Three years ago it launched a new taxi policy under which it created a class of green-topped cabs to handle demand between 3pm and 7am, and at major events such as the Games.

Adding to the existing city cab fleet of 4300 at the rate of 100 a year, the Government was proud that a further 300 taxis would be on Melbourne streets for the Games.

At the same time, state transport officials and Games organisers planned a massive logistics exercise to carry the more than 1 million people who would criss-cross Melbourne for the event.

A fleet of more than 200 buses was assembled to ferry athletes, officials, volunteers, media and other workers between venues, supplemented by 1500 cars provided by Toyota.

For the public, 30,000 extra services were added to bus, tram and train timetables. Tickets are free for people holding tickets on the days the events are held.

Melbournes A$400 million-a-year taxi industry says it is paying for it, especially the 80 per cent of new drivers who are new migrants struggling to make ends meet.

Most come from India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Sudan and Somalia. Many were hit before the Games began.

A crackdown by transport officials issued defect notices to 160 drivers, fined 50 others for minor offences, uncovered four whose licenses had been suspended, and discovered a Pakistani working illegally. He was later deported.

In the rank outside Melbourne's vast Crown Casino complex, George Drotar said his trade had fallen by about 25 per cent since the Games began. By early afternoon yesterday Drotar had A$92 on his meter.

On a normal Sunday, he said, there would be at least A$50 more. And customers had been hurt. Drotar said one customer yesterday morning needed to get from the city to the inner-city suburb of Prahran, normally a 10-minute trip costing A$10.

It took twice as long and cost twice as much. "I guess everyone is paying for it one way or another," he said.