Prime Minister Mia Mottley has called for the regulations governing private buses on the island’s roads to be urgently reviewed, as public criticism mounts over public service vehicle (PSV) operators not adequately servicing those routes for which they have licences.
Her call was made during Monday’s St Peter Speaks town hall meeting at the Alexandra School, where she responded to several concerns raised by residents about the poor state of public transport at all hours of the day.
Mottley noted that given the number of reports received on the situation from other Parish Speaks sessions, it was clear that the Transport Authority needed to look into the matter.
“What we discovered in St Lucy last month, is that people have licences for routes, and are choosing when they want to run them. Now, with every benefit comes a burden and with every burden comes a benefit.
“It is now up to the Transport Authority to ensure that those persons – not only St Lucy, but Christ Church too – [who] have been given licences, and the licence requires you to operate a service for the particular route, then you have a duty to do so unless for example you get into an accident or for whatever reason somebody is sick,” she said.
Mottley added that the situation was unacceptable, particularly given the large number of PSVs on the island’s roads.
“This is a case where clearly, the regulation needs to be tightened, without prejudice to what the Transport Board itself does with the blue and yellow buses… I am not satisfied that between the number of private buses and the public ones that we have, that what is being done is acceptable.
“One of the benefits of these Parish Speaks meetings is that I hear from you unfiltered, and I’ve heard loud and clear from the people of St Lucy and St Peter, that the Transport Board as well as the Transport Authority’s regulation of the private buses needs to be urgently reviewed.” (SB)