The state-owned Transport Board has announced a two-fold strategy prioritising schools and maintaining key routes at an enhanced level of service. But it deferred decisions on returning to previously abandoned short-haul routes.
Chief Executive Officer Fabian Wharton outlined the board’s focus on Thursday, stating that resuming services on shorter routes like Forde’s Road, which had been relinquished more than 30 years ago during the 1991 economic restructuring programme, is not currently on the agenda.
“The board’s priority right now is to make sure it can service the routes efficiently that it has currently scheduled. So, our number one priority right now is schools, and our second priority is the routes where there are no other forms of public transport other than the board’s. Our laser-sharp focus right now is to ensure that we do those things well,” Wharton told Barbados TODAY.
He said that any decision to reintroduce services on former routes remains uncertain.
“Whether we go back to those routes in the short, medium or long-term is a position that we would have to take on later, but as I speak today, those two things are the things that the board is fully engaged and sharp on,” Wharton said.
But privately owned route taxi and minibus owners urged the Transport Board to consider filling in service gaps on those routes during the evenings when safety and security are of greater concern for commuters.
Chairman of the Association of Public Transport Operators (APTO) Anwar Nana argued that privately-owned public service vehicles (PSVs) are adequately servicing the short-haul routes during the day.
He told Barbados TODAY: “I think the problem is at night because they [PSVs] don’t work due to issues of security. The Transport Board could supplement the efforts there. But during the day hours – say, morning until 6 o’clock – they are adequately serviced by the PSVs.”
He highlighted the lack of passengers and safety concerns at the Constitution River Terminal (CRT), from which short-haul ZRs and minibuses operate.
“The CRT is like a ghost town after 5 p.m., because commuters fear taking the trek there for safety reasons. That is why we have been asking and asking for a cashless system which would take the cash off the vehicle and make it a safer operation for all,” Nana explained, adding that PSV operators also fear being robbed.
He continued: “There is also the issue of loading. No one goes into the CRT after 5 p.m. . . . The CRT has its security but getting to the CRT is the issue.”
The APTO chairman therefore suggested that the Transport Board should step in to provide evening services on those short-haul routes.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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