Members of the public have appealed to the authorities to expand and upgrade the Savalalo market bus station to make it more user friendly for the public.

The strong winds and rain in recent days has resulted in individuals and families getting caught out by the bad weather when waiting to catch a bus home.

A 73-year-old man from Eva Salelesi,  Lemusu Tolovae, has used the bus stop over the years and says it has not got any better for the public waiting to catch a bus home.

"To me, we should build a new bus station for the people because it is not safe during the rainy season," he said in an interview with Samoa Observer.

Travelling to town to do his shopping, Mr Tolovae said he got caught out by the rain and the bus stop does not offer any form of shelter, especially when it gets windy.

"As you can see, I had to walk as fast as I could to get to this tent to avoid getting wet.”

Members of the public can walk over to the main market to shelter from the rain, but Mr Tolovae said when he does that, he will most likely miss his bus or get wet when making his way back to catch a bus.

Market vendor Rosie Togia expressed similar sentiments and said the bad weather ruins their stall. 

"The water has ruined part of our stall, the rain has come straight into our small stall. We came this morning and we had to sweep the water out," she said.

The impact of last Saturday’s strong winds and rain also justified the need for the bus stop to be upgraded, Ms Togia added.

"Last Saturday was the worst, some of our shirts were wet and also the market was so dirty," she said.

"Samoa should consider a bus station that could cater for everyone during the rainy season.”

It is understood the Savalalo bus stop is the responsibility of the Land Transport Authority (L.T.A.). But attempts by this newspaper on Tuesday to get comments from the L.T.A. were unsuccessful as its senior management were attending the sitting of Parliament.