The Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) is questioning Government over its seeming inability to allow the association’s members to import disabled-friendly electric public service vehicles (PSVs).
“We are hoping to give persons with disabilities greater access to our vehicles. We are still waiting on the Ministry of Energy to okay the $3 million for us as we wait to buy those electric buses. Right now, we have around 15 people applying for the energy loan and five persons were approved so far to bring in electric buses, but we can’t get any further,” AOPT chairman Roy Raphael said in a telephone interview.
He explained that part of the reason for this was also due to internal issues within a lending institution which was supposed to sign off on the deal.
“Right now, it means those who have applied are in limbo. Our cut-off point for getting these vehicles from China is in October, so if we don’t get permission for those fellows to get the money to buy the buses . . . .
“If we are to work in conjunction with the Barbados Council for the Disabled, we are hoping that those buses will be a hallmark to us moving forward in a new direction in relation to providing public transport for the disabled community,” he said.
Efforts to reach Minister of Energy, Business Development and Commerce Kerrie Symmonds were unsuccessful.
Raphael said the electric vehicle idea was part of AOPT’s upcoming ten-point plan to help improve transport in Barbados and curb some of the lawlessness. He added they will soon be delivering it to the relevant authorities.
“We want to bring a ten-point plan system to Government to resolve some of the issues related to public transport. The plan basically will be to look at how do we carry forward public transport within the next year or so.
Ten-point plan
“The ten-point plan will involve all stakeholders, including the Ministry of Transport, the police, the Transport Board, the Transport Authority, the Mass Transit Authority and everyone else,” he said.
He pointed out that the plan will include a proposal that PSV operators who went before the court for minor offences be issued a ticket immediately, pay the fine and move on. This system would also apply to passengers who “continue to violate the laws of the land”.
The chairman said schools also played a major role in the plan and there is a proposal for school visits by the alliance.
“Hopefully, next year, or later this year, we’re going to be visiting some schools to sensitise the public about their behaviour because we are still not very happy about the number of school children in some of these buses, particularly at some of the secondary schools. We are still seeing these buses are overloaded. Despite warning these children . . . about the possibility of overturning, we still continue to see the practice.
“So the alliance, along with the Barbados Road Safety Association and other stakeholders, will be looking to visit the schools so we can actually sensitise the children about the danger of doing those things and encourage schools to report any bad behaviour from PSV operators to us,” he said.
Another major component of the plan is the Safe Bus App. However, Raphael said he did not want to reveal too much as yet, but said it should be ready in a couple of weeks and be available for download.
“We want to see more people going to the bus stops. So when we do meet again with the minister, we are hoping that this ten-point plan will be engrafted into public transport and see if we can get everybody on board.”
(CA)
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