Minister of Transport and Works Santia Bradshaw has confirmed that Government plans to divest the state-owned Transport Board.
She said meetings were being planned with all of the stakeholders to discuss the many proposals, which include severing of all workers at the board and creation of an entity to operate the bus service.
Government’s plans for the divestment were apparently leaked last week when a document sent to the Barbados Workers’ Union from the Ministry of Transport and Works (MTW) outlining the proposals, was widely circulated on social media. It led to much public debate with several people expressing concern about the proposals.
The document also revealed that Cabinet had approved the divestment.
Meeting with stakeholders
Bradshaw, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, confirmed the existence of the document.
“The request for a meeting following the discussion at Cabinet went out to the various stakeholders of which the Barbados Workers’ Union is one. As indicated in the correspondence, it is our intention through the Mass Transit Committee to meet with all of the stakeholders over the course of the next few weeks.
“I would hope that we would be allowed the opportunity to discuss the proposals that are on the table with the unions, with the Transport Authority, with the Transport Board, with all of the public taxis, with everybody, because mass transit is not simply about Transport Board and buses. Mass transit is about improving the operationalisation and the efficiency of bus transportation and transport generally in the country.”
On the public criticism, Bradshaw told the MIDWEEK NATION: “So, we are reducing it to an issue of correspondence going about proposals, when in truth and in fact it’s about properly being able to know when a bus is coming, being able to rationalise the route so that with all of the new developments that we have, being able to make sure that we are servicing the areas that people actually want.
“It’s also about bringing order to a sector. If you look at it, we’ve already in a sense kind of had a situation where through the Transport Authority and even the TAP (Transport Augmentation Programme), we already have the private sector being enfranchised to be able to assist us with public transportation.
Present ideas
“I think people are taking it to extremes and I think we need to be given the opportunity to sit down and discuss around the table with all of the stakeholders, and to present the ideas that have been put together by the transition team and then come back to the public with our position.”
Among the proposals are the transferring of ownership of the 121 BYD electric buses to former employees of the Board, with priority being given to the drivers, other staff and employees of the Transport Authority, and thereafter the general public.
However, a member of the United Public Transport, is sceptical about them taking over the bus system.
“We have concerns because we don’t have any confidence in this mass transit and how it will work, because people stay in offices and make decisions for things that happen on the road. It is basically like the same thing they did for us when we leave to start TAP and that has not worked out smoothly,” he said.
TAP members were former Board drivers who partnered with Government to provide transportation services to the public.
“Our concern would be, is Government still going to pay for the pensioners and schoolchildren? There are a lot of things further to discuss. If they want to meet with us, how come they have taken it to Cabinet? Them does do things and then throw you under the bus afterwards and then when there are mistakes, you can’t call them to meet with them.
“This is about three years that the TAP association had written the Minister . . . to meet with her and never get a response. On October, 6, we wrote a letter to the Prime Minister asking her to meet with us to discuss certain things and one of those topics was the future of TAP.
“We received a response from her secretary saying that they received the letter but we have not got that meeting yet with the Prime Minister. One of the topics we wanted to discuss with the Prime Minister is that we as TAP working with the Transport Board and the Transport Board is not making any money and we are not making any money either.”
He suggested that divestment of the Board “is not going to be easy”.
“I doubt the majority of workers will be interested in getting those electric buses or the diesel buses. About three or four people would have to form a company to work together to actually maintain those electric buses, so I don’t know what they really thinking. I have no confidence in this mass transit thing, so I wish them luck, but a lot of my fellow comrades say it will be mass chaos. We have no confidence in that project whatsoever.” (MB)
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