balance | August 4, 2012 at 5:42 PM |
Management of Public Transport in Barbados fell down with the flirtatious attempt by the Tom Adams administration to nationalise the service by running the well run private companies like Rocklyn, Progressive and Federal.
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The Progressive ,and I believe , the Federal were taken over long before Tom Adams came to power . If my memory serves me right the Progressive,was first taken over on the formation of the Transport Board in 1955, but at the insistence of the former owner /concessionaire ,Mr Birch, his “birds” and route was handed back to him . They were finally taken over around 1964/65. Sometime in the mid 60’s there was an amalgamation of the other bus companies, which came under the umbrella of Rocklyn ,which took over Federal ,and Elite which encompassed all the other bus companies operating on the eastern side of the island.
When the Transport Board eventually completed the nationalisation of the public transport system in the late 1970’s ,taking over the Rocklyn and the Elite, they should have retained the services of Mrs Rock and Mr Coward as area managers operating out of Haggatts and Mangrove Depots respectively.
But what baffled me is , why did successive governments had seen it fit to take the public transport out of the hands of established, well disciplined and knowledgeable private concessionaires, just to shortly afterwards ,hand back most of the lucrative routes,like the Pine and Silver Sands to cowboys?

balance | August 4, 2012 at 5:21 AM |
If you went Combermere – like the chairman you can get ……………….
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Chickens coming home to roost. The location at Weymouth where the Transport Board now stands was the former home of Combermere.

What is the role of the Minister with responsibility for the Transport Board ? Does he ever give guidance to the organisation ? What is his role ? Is he a figure head ?

I remember a former General Manager of Transport Board, when he was in a previous role, observed employees being dismissed for serious infractions of the Boards rules.,ie serious vehicle accidents ,and fingers on the bag. When he took up the post of GM, the then Minister of Transport, sent back some of these same previously fired persons, who most likely were from his constituency,for re-employment with the Board. Naturally the GM refused to rehire them,which did not sit well with the Minister,who summoned the GM to his office and told him in no uncertain term that when he send people to the Transport Board, it was for the GM to hire them and not to interview them.
This has always been the outstanding role of the Minister of Transport in relation to the Transport Board — dumping dead wood on that institution. At times a whole family may find employment there.

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