Transport Board to modernized, Bradshaw says

Initiatives aimed at modernizing the Transport Board will be coming soon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources, Santia Bradshaw, said.

Bradshaw gave brief remarks during the Board’s 67th anniversary church service, held at the Church of the Nazarene on Sunday.

She told worshippers that the state entity has seen improvements over the last few years, with more being planned for the near future. Some of the changes include expanding the green energy solutions with the buses and introducing a cashless system for commuters.

“We have been working on trying to develop solar energy solutions; everybody is talking now about making sure that we are going green and we have some plans in place to look at solar energy to be able to effect at least $3 million to $6 million in savings to the Transport Board.

“We’ve also looked at the automatic fare collection system, which is a system that that is going to introduce what we call a cashless system on the public transportation, which will allow you not to have to walk with any cash, because as you know we are introducing the ID card and we want to be able to allow people to just swipe and be able to travel on the buses. Of course that means our pensioners, our school children, everybody will be accommodated by way of this new initiative,” she said.

Bradshaw said the introduction of a cashless system will also aid in the area of security, as passengers will soon be able to travel to and from destinations without the need of physical cash being on them, for risk of being robbed.

She added that the systems needed for the transition on the buses have already been ordered, saying, “In a few weeks or so we should have the first 50 on island. The preparatory work has already been done, but the intention is that by January of next year we can actually go live in relation to the cashless system.”

Another improvement on the way will be a GPS tracking app for buses, so that commuters can always keep track of buses as they make the journey on the island’s roadways.

“We want to make sure that the public knows when a bus is coming; how many of you go overseas and you are able to check to see when a bus is actually pulling up at the bus stop, but yet in Barbados we are not able to do it.

“That is the way we have now agreed that we will use technology to make it easier for the general public to be able to utilize technology.”

The plans for the amalgamation of the Transport Authority and the Transport Board into the Barbados Mass Transit Authority have also been steadily moving along, with the initial framework on the structure of the new body already completed.

“I can say to you that we recently, last Thursday, would have taken the MOU, a compact document, which would have been agreed on with the unions and various stakeholders, which sets a framework as to what we want to see in public transportation in this country.” (SB)