Dear Christine,
Please allow me a little space in your column to get this message to the Transport Board.
Many times we hear the Transport Board is making no money, but how can it make money when there is no proper marketing of the bus service? There are new routes available to the public and many people don’t know about them.
For example, I happened to find out about the Bridgetown shuttle by accident when a woman asked me if it had passed yet. When she learned it was new to me, she explained what it was. I must say that since I found out about it, it is one of the most reliable buses.
I feel the Board should either print leaflets and put them in certain places, or have them in the bus terminals so people can get the information.
There is a new service, the ABC Highway bypass, and I am sure many people like me only know its goes from Speightstown via Warrens to Oistins. I understand there are many more bypass buses, but you don’t hear about them and the times they travel.
Another concern is why at peak hours you get a small bus and at off-peak hours a big bus with two people in it. I am living in?the Wanstead area and every evening between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. when you do get a bus it is small.
Please help commuters like me who have to depend on the Transport Board. We deserve better treatment.
– Fed-up Commuter
Dear Fed-up Commuter,
As you rightly pointed out, it makes sense for the Transport Board to market their new routes so that the public can utilise their services more. It is pointless putting a new service in place without undertaking a sensitisation campaign to make the public aware of it.
I do recall hearing about the Bridgetown City Circle and the Oistins to Speightstown Express bus which travels along the ABC Highway, but the campaign promoting these services was not long and, as far as I can recall, not repeated. I am unsure, too, if leaflets promoting these services were available in the bus terminals, so your point is understandable.
I think the Transport Board needs to place route schedules on each bus pole. In that way anyone who goes to that bus stop would be informed about which buses pass that road, their destinations, and the approximate times of the buses’ arrival at that pole for the various routes.
This suggestion is by no means revolutionary. This is what you get in Britain, Canada and the United States when you go to a bus stop. So even if you are unfamiliar with the district you’re in, you need only to look at the schedule on the pole to get some idea of which bus will be passing, at what time, and where it is going to.
Your concern should be seen in a positive light by the board because it points to deficiencies in their public relations efforts and if acted on would help them.
I find your concern timely because these days many of us need to save every cent given the high cost of gasoline, so catching a bus for only $2 is a less expensive option. The Transport Board’s marketing people should realise this and fashion a campaign urging people to take the bus more and save money. Circulating the routes and schedules would be a critical part of that thrust. They just can’t assume that people have this information.
In fairness to the board’s marketing people, I suspect they have not taken such action as there may not be enough buses to cater to both the schools and the public at peak hours, so they certainly can’t entice people without having the units to serve their needs.
This may explain why at peak hours you get small buses while off-peak the larger units are in operation. The large units would be needed in the morning and evening to transport the school children.
I am not aware of the facts here and am just giving my opinion, but this is what seems to be the situation. I suspect with the publication of this letter we will get some response from the Transport Board, so you can look forward to that.
– Christine
