AOPT urges transport ‘special committee’

A representative of  the private sector public transport operators wants the Government to sort out the island’s transport issues by committee.

Chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport Roy Raphael is calling for a committee that brings together the Ministry of Transport, PSV owners, operators, and other industry players. He suggested that the Government-appointed committee should have a role in policymaking and also oversee the island’s transport network.

Speaking on day two of talks between Government and transport industry figures, Raphael said that they should be directly involved in the creation of Government policy as over 850 PSVs traverse the nation’s roads.

AOPT chairman Roy Raphael (left) and spokesman Mark Haynes in conversation at today’s meeting.

Raphael argued that a special committee would solve what he described as poor communication among industry players.

“We cannot continue the way we have been continuing. Often each of us does not know what the other is doing and we end up with the result of what happened when there was the route rationalisation.”

He declared that excluding representatives for the PSVs from discussions was a recipe for disaster.

“If you do not include the PSV representatives to say ‘no or yeah’ and carry an argument then you are looking for failure and that is exactly what happened,” said Raphael.

The AOPT chairman indicated that a committee would have reduced miscommunication on the TASI route pilot project in which privately owned PSVs were to run on routes alongside Transport Board buses on an experimental basis. He also suggest a committee would address such issues as route rationalisation and bus integration.

Raphael also said that the special committee would have “the ability to interact with all stakeholders so they could be informed on issues so it does not escalate”.

“It should not be left totally to the Transport Bard to deal with issues in the bus stand or it should not be left totally to the Transport Authority to deal with issues in the
Constitution River terminal. It should be a representative body involving the players to see that the issues are corrected,” he explained.