Government is looking to the Barbados Transport Authority to devise a five-year development plan to stop public transportation from being such a massive drain on state finances.
Minister of Transport and Works John Boyce made this clear in the House of Assembly yesterday, saying that Government saw the Authority playing a pivotal role in making the transport sector more efficient and less reliant on state funding.
According to Boyce, Government needed “a solution which is effective and does not burden the state with the kind of charges which we contemplate from time to time and, indeed, which we are dealing with today”.
He made the comments when the House discussed a supplementary resolution for $49.3 million for the Barbados Transport Board.
“We must explore all avenues in trying to ensure that we do not need to lean on the coffers of Government so heavily and so consistently …in trying to bring about this very noble and necessary solution,” Boyce told MPs.
He spoke of the need for a more reliable Transport Board service in the short term, “even as we contemplate the master plan of the Authority and as we contemplate any intervention that we can make towards mass transport solutions”.
Boyce listed “late trips, missing trips (and) buses that break down” among the factors contributing to unpopularity of the Transport Board’s service.
However, he said the board had moved “in some way” to improve the image.
Boyce suggested that the Transport Board and the Authority work towards improving the public transport sector to the point where people would be comfortable in putting their vehicles down and taking a bus.
He said that the Authority did not have to depend on the issuing of public service vehicle (PSV) licences and state funds to bankroll its operations, but could borrow money and engage in business dealings with parties investing in “the mass transport solution for Barbados”.
The minister said he wished to see the Authority “move aggressively in this direction” and “take the Transport Board with them hand in hand on this journey”.
