‘Timetable’: AOPT considers scheduled services

The island’s privately run public service vehicle (PSV) operators are considering introducing a fixed-schedule service in a move aimed at tackling chronic traffic congestion and improving reliability for commuters, their umbrella body has revealed.

Chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT), Roy Raphael, said if implemented, the new service would help to significantly reduce or even eliminate “the serious problem of dragging”, where operators drive at a snail’s pace during slow periods, snarling traffic.

“Dragging is a significant problem for the people, particularly of the north. Dragging in our sense means that during the slow period, operators still want to go from Speightstown to Bridgetown; but they want to pick up everybody. The police can report you for obstructing other persons from proceeding, because you are going to back up a long line of traffic,” Raphael contended.

“What we are hoping to do,” he added, “is that we are going to be working very closely with the relevant authorities to identify how we can eliminate… because it’s not across the board; it is some people who are prepared to drag or not allow other vehicles to go in front of them to pick passengers. Does it mean we will have to look at a schedule system? Because if everybody decided on a schedule system, that is where the issue is.”

He suggested a system where commuters can use an app that informs them when buses leave terminals and the approximate time they would reach their destinations.

The AOPT leader said this would make things easier for both passengers and operators.

Raphael said the proposed scheduled system would be best implemented by the pending Mass Transit Authority, which would be better placed to monitor its functioning.

“A mass transit [authority] would have to monitor the routes, who is on the route, what time they leave and so on; similar to what happens at the airport and the seaport. You don’t find everybody going in one time and picking up everybody. They are called; and when they are called, they would be given a particular route.”

“So, rather than having 200 vehicles on the Speightstown route, and then you have none for Eden Lodge, or the people in Rock Hall having to wait two hours to get a van; or somebody in St Lucy having to wait two and a half hours to get to Bridgetown, that would be changed.” 

He argued that under this system, every PSV operator would have a “good piece of the cake”, as they would be allocated according to need rather than the lucrative nature of a route.

Raphael said: “It’s something that only the Mass Transit Authority would be able to get in place, because obviously we don’t control every public service vehicle owner… and even the regulation that they need to be policed. So, we are hoping that with the new mass transit in place, we should see some improvement as to how people do business.”

The association will be stepping up efforts to get people – and drivers – to comply with the requirement to use bus stops, he said.

Raphael said: “We will be looking at a ‘bus stop day’ as a scenario, where we would be encouraging commuters and the PSVs to go to the bus stop on this day that we will be announcing. We will be working with the relevant authorities, including the police and the Government Information Service, to ensure that we practise going to the bus stop as a measure of safety.”