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From Cou­va in cen­tral Trinidad, Pe­nal in the South and San­ta Flo­ra in the South-West, mo­torists con­verged at the Li­cens­ing Of­fice in San Fer­nan­do on Sun­day af­ter­noon, drawn by ur­gency and fear of mount­ing penal­ties. By then, the line had al­ready stretched near­ly 600 me­tres, crawl­ing from Princess Mar­garet Street to the Bal­isi­er Av­enue com­pound.

For many, the wait had be­come an en­durance test. Dri­vers ar­rived with meals in hand, prepar­ing for hours, some­times days, of un­cer­tain­ty.

Some were mak­ing their sec­ond at­tempt af­ter be­ing turned away last week.