The planned introduction of a “tap and go” system by which persons over the age of 65 could freely ride the Transport Board buses by using their Trident ID cards, has been pushed back by three months.
This was announced yesterday during press conference convened at Parliament by Prime Mia Amor Mottley, who sought to allay fears among this country’s senior citizens around the suddenness of the initial announcement as well as the limited time frame for the pinning of ID cards.
In a statement last Friday, The Electoral and Boundaries Commission said with effect from October 1, Barbadians 65 years of age and over will become the first to just “tap and go” when they enter any bus operated by the Transport Board, in order to ride free of charge. The issue sparked some controversy as persons queried why the old system of simply presenting one’s ID card could no longer suffice. Others pointed to the fact that upon collecting their new ID cards, pinning was optional.
Acknowledging that communication could have been better on the part of the ECB and the Transport Board Mottley said: “This afternoon we have agreed that we would extend the validity of the old iD card from October 31 to January 31. We recognise that we are doing well with over 220,000 Barbadians who have already registered. With respect to the movement of persons on the Transport Board, we also agreed that persons would be allowed to use both their digital card and their old card for the period of time of validity of the old card.”