A joint committee of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) and the Association of Public Transport Operators (APTO) is agitating for public service vehicle (PSV) to use Baxters Road again.
Spokesperson for the joint committee, Ingrid King, said that it had been over ten years since some PSVs were barred from exiting Bridgetown via that road due to construction, but since the work was completed, Transport Board buses were given the green light.
King also said between 80 and 100 vehicles which previously used that area had reported losses.
“It has been over ten years that this change has affected minibuses plying from Cheapside when the roadworks were completed. So we met with the Ministry [of Transport and Works] and we made them aware of how people were making significant losses by not being allowed back through.”
She said they had been agitating for this change for over two years.
In the wake of a meeting last Monday at the Barbados Community College, St Michael, a report was made and proposals delivered to government by the representative bodies.
In addition to the Baxters Road request, other proposals sent forward concerned the slow progress of work at the Constitution River Terminal and inadequate provisions at that incomplete facility, National Insurance and Income Tax Clearances requested for renewal of privately owned PSVs and how the uneven application of this stipulation affects the sector.
The owners were informed of the legal advice followed by the associations, presentation of duty-free proposals to government and a lack of a response from the Ministry of Finance to date, submission of a request for a bus fare review and a lack of a response from the Ministry of Transport to date, and preliminary examination of the use of cashless fare systems on PSVs. (TG)