by Linda Straker
- Government will not invest in fleet of buses to service public transport system
- Government may consider investing in data-driven pilot project targeting students
- Minister for Transport to engage bus owners and bus owners association to extend public transportation system
Transport Minister and Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said that Government will not invest in a fleet of buses to service the public transport system, but instead consider investing in a data-driven pilot project targeting students.
“At this stage I can’t answer that Government will invest in a bus system…what I could answer definitively is that we are likely to invest in a pilot project specific to school children,” he said during a news conference on 8 May, responding to a question on whether Government would be investing in a public transport system due to the shortage of buses plying various bus routes.
“For example, that may mean buying 1 or 2 electric vehicles or buses at a particular school and you then transport the children, and you collect the data coming out of that; and it will tell you if this is something that is feasible—is it something that is sustainable, if it makes sense and the alternative to it,” he said.
“We are not yet at the point where we can say to you definitively we can go and buy a fleet of buses, invest in a fleet of buses. Secondly I will say as the Minister for Transport, I will be hesitant to do so without first giving the private bus owners who have provided public transportation service, all the opportunity to see how we can work with them to improve and extend the public transportation system.”
Explaining there may be one or two exceptional circumstances, “We may have to get buses ourselves, for example if you are dealing with people who are physically challenged,” he said, “We don’t have to own the buses, that is the Government, in order to work with the bus owners and the bus owners association to be able to expand and improve and make more reliable the bus system in Grenada.”
The Prime Minister believes there are too many personal vehicles on the road, pointing out that there are more than 60,000 licenced and registered vehicles in the system. “It is not sustainable to have the number of private vehicles we have on the road… It is not sustainable because our road infrastructure cannot handle it.”
Well your country needs a bus service like the UK and other countries 24/7 service if he wants to take private cars off the road he needs to invest heavily in a proper public bus service spend some of this money which he gets from selling passports and citizenships etc so you can have a proper service bus service so you can get and people can get rounds easily
There are too many cars on the road and the government will not invest in public transportation… this makes sense?
Jazmine, read the statement from our PM. I believe he wants to work with private bus owners to best find a solution. Jumping into government owned/operated buses may not be the answer. Working with the established drivers makes sense, they know what goes on.