Commuters facing long waits and unreliable evening bus services could soon find relief, as a new app-based system allowing passengers to book seats on public service vehicles and pay online is set to launch within two months, Barbados TODAY can reveal.
The project, dubbed Book-a-Ride and operated by the privately-run PSV industry, is intended to provide guaranteed rides to passengers who are currently experiencing significant delays in catching a bus, or where routes are not serviced by the state-owned Transport Board, or for those who find it difficult to get home after 6 p.m., officials said.
Chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT), Roy Raphael, disclosed that the system, which will start on a trial basis in rural Barbados, is akin to booking a flight on an airline where one’s seat is allotted for a specific time and destination.
“The Book-a-Ride, we will be doing it on some routes, particularly St Andrew where it is taking two hours or two and a half hours to get to St Andrew. We will do it particularly on evenings. So, you will be able to secure a ride and be sure that the ride will come. But the Book-a-Ride will be an additional $2 more that will accommodate the service because we have to work with a provider,” Raphael told Barbados TODAY.
“Once we get the approval from the Barbados Transport Authority (BTA), the Ministry of Transport as well as the Transport Board, you should be able to go ahead and book your ride and pay the additional $2.”
The PSV industry spokesman explained that commuters will be required to book their rides through a downloaded app – the details of which will be publicised later – and pay with their Visa cards, or call by phone and pay cash on entering the designated vans.
“You can either use your cash,” Raphael suggested, “or use cashless. Those persons on the road will have to pay the additional $2. The bus will also stop along the route, but you would have to pay the additional $2. What we will do, is that in the future, is to liaise with the government to allow the pensioners to also use the app, to pay for going on the bus.”
This arrangement would take a load off the Transport Board because some people may not be able to get a bus due to circumstances, Raphael reasoned.
He said: “Once the provider is available, you can rest assured, people would be able to get that Book-a-Ride, to and from Bridgetown and other parts of the country. But as I said, we want to work with the Transport Board . . . we can help. For example, we have places that the buses don’t go . . . Rendezvous Gardens, Forde’s Road, Howell’s and Ivy; after 6 o’clock, after 9 o’clock, you have to wait long hours. So, you have to get there for the time the bus is scheduled to depart.”
While the new system is expected to go into operation in two months, the association is still working out the logistics, according to Raphael.
The AOPT will go public with further details on how to book a ride by using
debit or credit cards online or paying cash, he said.
“This will eliminate a lot of the problems people complain about not getting buses.”
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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