Bradshaw: Transport Board not for sale

Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw on Thursday night firmly rejected claims that the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration intends to “sell off” the Transport Board, insisting that the future of public transport amounted to reform, investment and worker enfranchisement rather than divestment of a public asset.

Speaking at a public meeting in Layne’s Road, Brittons Hill, St Michael, Bradshaw, the BLP candidate for St Michael South East and former Minister of Transport, said allegations of a sell-off were misleading. 

“We have, therefore, not embarked on a selling off of the Transport Board as some would want you to believe. It is not a sale of the Transport Board, it is not a sale of the Transport Authority. It is an investment and divestment model, which allows for us to enfranchise the workers of the various entities to allow people to now be able to own a bus,” Bradshaw contended.

She explained that her administration’s intention was to restructure public transport through the creation of a Barbados Mass Transit Authority, bringing together existing entities under a single regulatory framework. 

“By bringing the buses and by improving the system, it is our intention to bring together what is known as the Barbados Mass Transit Authority, which is simply an amalgamation of the Transport Board and the Transport Authority,” Bradshaw said.

She said the BLP had deliberately refrained from reacting to opposition criticism, choosing instead to remain focused on consultation and reform. 

“We have not jumped up and responded to the Democratic Labour Party when they make all kinds of allegations,” she said, adding that the administration’s priority was to ensure workers were central to the process. 

“We remain focused on being able to create an enfranchisement model that allows workers to be able to have a stake in public transportation.”

Bradshaw stressed that discussions with labour representatives were ongoing and necessary to the approach being taken. 

“We will continue our discussions with the workers first, with the unions, to make sure that they understand the approach of this Barbados Labour Party in relation to public transportation,” Bradshaw said. 

“We could not negotiate in relation to the enfranchisement model without the advice and the direction given by the unions.”

Placing the debate in a wider historical context, Bradshaw argued that the BLP’s position on public transportation had always been about inclusion rather than privatisation.

“Anything to do with public transportation has always been about the enfranchisement of our people. The thinking and the vision always was for the BLP was to make sure that ordinary people had a stake in public transportation,” she said.

Her remarks echoed statements she made last month as the Transport Board welcomed 35 electric buses at the Bridgetown Port. At that time, Bradshaw told reporters that the process remained consultative and that workers’ interests would remain paramount. 

Bradshaw’s comments came against the backdrop of growing opposition to any form of divestment, including from the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados, but she maintained that government’s record demonstrated its commitment to strengthening, not dismantling, public transport.