The island’s school children will benefit from improved bus services from the Transport Board when the new term starts next Monday but general commuters are likely to suffer fallout.
In an update on back-to-school preparations, Chief Operations Officer (COO) of the Transport Board Lynda Holder said the priority is transporting students and, as a result, there will be delays in other services; however, commuters will be updated.
“It does not mean that we ignore the other commuters, but it means our focus and the bulk of our services go towards the schools. This might result in some delays for other commuters. It isn’t that we do not care about other commuters but there is a responsibility to make sure that the most vulnerable in our society, in this case, students, are not standing on the side of the road for extended periods.
“Our focus and the bulk of our services start from 6:30 a.m. to get these children to school for that 8 a.m. start and in the evening, it is done in the opposite direction. There are schools that finish at 1:45 p.m. and we try to be at school by the time classes are finished,” she said.
Holder assured, however, that commuters, particularly those in the bus terminals, will receive notice of delays and changes to the schedule to minimise the impact.
She advised: “If there are alternatives, you can employ those alternatives. For instance, if you are travelling somewhere along the Bayfield route and there is no Bayfield bus, but Bayfield has lots of alternatives there, you would be able to decide if you want to take the alternative or if you prefer to wait in the terminal because you wish to travel with us.”
As part of efforts to improve the school bus service, the board is assigning inspectors to two rural schools, The Alleyne School and Grantley Adams Memorial. Inspectors are already stationed at the Lodge School and Daryll Jordan Secondary.
“So, the role of the inspectors is primarily to manage and monitor the services that we deliver to the schools, and if something goes awry, as it can happen, they will be our main link of communication to the schools to say either the bus has or has not arrived, or that they need additional services because we miscalculated the number of children who are taking buses,” Holder explained.
The Transport Board COO also outlined easier access for disabled students. She noted the call-a-ride service transports 90 per cent of students from special schools and those seeking to benefit from the service must apply through the National Disability Unit.
“And what that will do is go to different segments. The island is divided into quadrants – so you have a north, east, south, west – and then you also have a Bridgetown loop and when we divide it up like that and you are in those quarters, we will drive around, pick you up from whichever because obviously these are not persons that can travel on the main and regular transport system.
“And then we go to basically a mini-hub and we will transfer all of the groups, so that if you have children going to the Ann Hill [School], all of them will then get one bus and go to Ann Hill and that type of thing. We transport students to Erdiston, we transport students to St George; all the schools that have special units we will transport students to those units and then obviously we have to pick them back up,” Holder said.
(BT/PR)
