St John folk miffed over ‘worsening’ bus service

St John residents have voiced growing concerns about what they consider deteriorating public transport in their area and surrounding communities, during a Parish Speaks session held at the Gall Hill Hard Court on Thursday.  

Highlighting the daily struggles commuters face, one resident shared that the bus service operating through Church View into Martins Bay is insufficient, with lengthy waits and overcrowding due to competition for space with school children. 

“The Martins Bay bus service has got even worse than it was before. People who catch the bus have to tussle with school children. Sometimes there is a long wait. It has been getting worse lately,” a Church View resident said.

The resident also noted that some drivers participating in the Transport Augmentation Programme (TAP) avoid the area, citing poor road conditions: “Some TAP persons say they aren’t going to Martins Bay, saying the road from Groves to there is the worst and we as residents can’t do anything about it.”

Ongoing roadworks in neighbouring Glenburnie have led to a lack of reliable bus service, the resident said. 

“For the past week we have not had a 5 p.m. bus due to breakdowns. I have to get to work at 7 a.m. and to do that I now have to walk from Church View to Gall Hill . . . by the time I do that I’m tired.” 

There were also claims of unprofessional behaviour from some bus operators towards commuters. 

“The bus operators curse us when they realise where we are going,” the villager stated.  

Responding to the complaints, Prime Minister Mia Mottley declared the government would not tolerate such neglect and unprofessional conduct. 

She said buses set for the route “cannot decide not to go there”. 

“If they are not going because of the roadworks in Glenburnie, then we are going to have to find some other mechanism to resolve it, but it can’t be that they are not going because they don’t want to go. The route requires them to go to Martin’s Bay,” she insisted.

On claims of abusive behaviour, the PM was unequivocal: “That can’t work either. All of those are things that will cause people to either be suspended or lose their licences. Barbados is not the wild wild west, so if people are taking actions against commuters then the transport authority needs to know and those people are effectively deeming themselves unsuitable to serve in that capacity.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Santia Bradshaw urged residents to report incidents of operators not completing routes so the transport authority could investigate. 

Mottley acknowledged this was the third Parish Speaks where such issues arose, saying: “Clearly there is a need for a meeting with the TAP workers and then to make sure one or two people doing bad don’t give everybody a bad name.” (SM)