est. 2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

Fixing Public Transportation

Submitted by Anthony Davis “FROM BAD TO WORSE.” That sums it all up! How do you expect people to be productive if they cannot get to/from work on time? It is very frustrating to hear: “We are having challenges with your services” after seeing buses with 2 or 3 passengers leave the terminal for destinations…

Submitted by Anthony Davis
The Transport Authority primary function is to plan, monitor and regulate the public transport system in Barbados.
“The Transport Authority primary function is to plan, monitor and regulate the public transport system in Barbados“

“FROM BAD TO WORSE.” That sums it all up!

How do you expect people to be productive if they cannot get to/from work on time? It is very frustrating to hear: “We are having challenges with your services” after seeing buses with 2 or 3 passengers leave the terminal for destinations like Silver Hill which are flooded with minibuses and ZRs.

The challenges seem to be mental ones for the inspectors, because it is obvious to me that one should service the routes which have the most commuters waiting first. You cannot even ask the inspectors a question as they do not reply, or give you some stupid answer. The reason why that is so is because many government jobs in this country are political appointments, and it is very difficult to fit square pegs into round holes.

All we hear from this Government is “we plan” whatever, but the plans never seem to come to fruition. The only plans they can get off the ground are the taxes with which this Minister of Finance is destroying this country. He promises to tax us – and that is exactly what he is doing, no matter what the consequences. He could not care less how, and if, people get to work as long as he can hop into his limo – which is being paid for by the same tax payers who are being loaded with more and more taxes every time he gets up – and go to work.

Can you imagine workers getting home – after standing in the terminal for 2 or 3 hours – at 10 or 11 o’clock and have to look after themselves and their scions, and still have to be up by 4 a.m. at the latest in the hope of getting a bus which will leave its starting point at 5 to get them to the terminal only to be stuck there for hours, and will therefore be late for work?

Can they give 100 %, or near that in productivity if they are tired and frustrated? I very much doubt it. The Europeans know how valuable transport is for their workers. That’s why it is punctual and relatively cheap. They also do their utmost to help the middle class, whereas it is the opposite here. No country can prosper without a vibrant middle class!

The time for talking the talk has long passed. It is high time to walk the walk. We need punctual and reliable mass transport in this country!

69 responses to “Fixing Public Transportation”

  1. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    @Dompey
    We as the electorate ought to have taken that fact and factor into consideration prior to casting our votes come election day because our votes merely rest on promises with are yet to be materialize. It is chance we’re taking and some have took, so the consequences we obviously have to lives with.
    ……………………………………………………………………………………
    But, Bro, the same very things that the DLP warned us about during the election campaign ,pertaining to the BLP plans if they had won the election, are the very same things that the DLP are now implementing . So in essence it looks like Owen Arthur ,is the real leader of this country since the last general election.A puppet master, pulling the strings on the ruling party.

  2. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    What this country need is a Transport Supremo, a sort of Transport- General ,with a suitably qualified team, whose job it is to oversee, not only the purchasing of all government vehicle, but also ensuring that government departments are issued with the appropriate vehicles fit for its intended role, and not have messengers,and others. . traversing Bridgetown with a top of the line , high maintenance ,gas guzzling SUV,and Ambulances fitted on general service van chassis. Also frequently inspecting the maintenance procedure applied to individual government fleets, and making the necessary recommendations,where necessary.
    Its a pity that the Government did not see it fit to utilise the services of one of its retired technocrat ,as a consultant , in the above capacity or on the board or boards of those government departments who fleet guarantee seems to be “Five Miles of Five Minutes,whichever comes first.” Not only is this man qualified in all aspects of Transport management, he has the experience, gained even before he started to work for the Barbados government ,to back it up. But alas ,like me , he is not a member of either political party.

  3. PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926TO 2014 MASSIVE FRAUD LANDTAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS, BARBADOS DLP/BLP MASSIVE PONZI FRAUD Avatar
    PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926TO 2014 MASSIVE FRAUD LANDTAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS, BARBADOS DLP/BLP MASSIVE PONZI FRAUD

    Fixing Public Transportation@

    DLP/BLP +Owen can not run Public Transportation and therefore can not run the government,Doing a fine job of running it into the ground,

  4. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Colonel Buggy
    What you may be failing to realize is that these people are not so stupid that they may really believe that they can REALISTICALLY appoint their yardfowls to these positions and ACTUALLY be able to achieve successful results….
    You see the composition of the so-called transport authority?

    The truth is that these boards are constituted to seek the minister’s approval before even going to the toilet, so a board of technical experts would just be a waste of time….
    …and the ministers are all just looking to get rich quickly….
    This place is fcuked.

    We have allowed the riff raff legal/political criminal element to take control and have convinced ourselves that they will somehow see their way to come to a human understanding WITHOUT some kind of mass-based REVOLUTION…..
    ….IT WILL NOT HAPPEN.

    the BUP revolt is the most practical kind of revolution….but Bajans are such brass bowls that even this seems too radical….so the slide will continue…..

  5. GEORGIE PORGIE Avatar
    GEORGIE PORGIE

    BRASS BOWL, SELF CONFESSED RETARD
    RE the BUP revolt is the most practical kind of revolution….but Bajans are such brass bowls that even this seems too radical….so the slide will continue…..

    WHY DONT YOU GO AND BUP AND LET JONES SHOOT YOUR TAIL
    LEAD THE BUP MAN
    YOU NOSE EVATING BOUT EVATING
    YOU GOT ALL THE SOLUTIONS TO ALL THE PROBLEMS
    STOP TALKING SHITE MAN GO AND BUP

    THE SAME WAY THAT NONE FOLLOW YOU ON BUSH TEA AT LARGE NONE WILL BUP WITH YOU
    BARE MOCK SPORT IN DE RUM SHOP THIS MAWNING

  6. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    rubes | August 16, 2014 at 9:50 PM |

    wellwell
    change your name to racist drivel.
    canadians did own the land and guess what more fodder for you, they are jews. do you know any ever met any.do they have tails and horns.jesus was a jew. jealous?

    Rubes don’t hurt yourself, ‘jews’ are flesh and blood, nothing earth shaking and jewishness is not a race, particularly when the impostors are frauds…….

    By the way, i forgot to mention that the Israeli’s are also well known world wide for trafficking in human organs, with or without the owner’s consent…..let’s hope if they decide to spread their organ harvesting skills to Barbados that the first ‘donors’ are the dumb as ass politicians who allowed them to set up an embassy in Barbados. It will certainly help lighten the load on the taxpayers in that blighted ass fraud of a parliament.

    Hants……your timeline would be right, the holders of the Deeds for the Lascelles property resides just a stone’s throw away, don’t mind these clown impostors, if Altman was the holder of the title deeds he would have presented them to Scotiabank.

  7. GEORGIE PORGIE Avatar
    GEORGIE PORGIE

    DAVID
    YOU ARE REMOVING MY POSTS
    STOP IT
    https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/bowman_robert/trinity/trinity.cfm

  8. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    From the Saturday Nation-16 August 2014
    Fri, August 15, 2014 – 12:00 AM
    EDITORIAL
    Once again the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) is in the spotlight over its inability to adequately collect garbage across the country. Again the problem has to do with its inability to muster enough working trucks each day.

    ​What makes this situation particularly unacceptable to us is that just eight months ago Minister of the Environment Dr Denis Lowe and the SSA’s management were showing off a dozen new trucks the agency had just acquired.

    Today they can get hardly get half a dozen more than that number of trucks on the road.

    In recent years the SSA has lost a lot of its reputation as one of the most efficiently run and productive statutory corporations in Barbados and the consistency of poor service these days could soon result in Barbadians just simply not remembering its previous high standing.

    But why is this occurring, and is there any comparison with what is taking place with other state corporations like the Transport Board?

    In seeking to answer this question we can’t help but wonder if the acquisition patterns of the Government have contributed in any way to these now chronic problems. When the modus operandi of an agency like the SSA, which operates fleets of vehicles, is to acquire large numbers at once it is inevitable that breakdowns and the need for replacement will also occur en masse.

    Government and its agencies need to reorder their business in such a manner that there is a sensible annual replacement programme, ensuring that fleets are made up of appliances of varying ages and life expectancies.

    When the SSA, which traditionally has a fleet of no more than three dozen trucks, continues to run them into the ground and then replace a dozen or even as many as 20 all at once it is begging for a repeat four or five years down the line.

    Juxtapose this against the astronomically poor service commuters are now getting from the Transport Board, the poor state of repair of its fleet, and the disclosure earlier this week that it is now looking for a supplier for 100 new buses. One hundred new buses this year will mean 100 old buses will have to be replaced in eight to ten years — or whatever their lifespan is given to be.

    Again we ask: Why is it so difficult to have a decent fleet replacement programme that is based on the sensible retirement of a reasonable number of units annually?

    While we are at it, we also make the point that while the management of the SSA has to be held responsible in the final analysis for the quality of service delivered, the staff who work these trucks must also shoulder some of the blame.

    These days it is not unusual to be awoken by the SSA’s “ZR drivers” who seem to get pleasure out of trying to make music with the truck engines as they play with the clutch and gas pedals.

    Additionally, the sharp stopping and jackrabbit starting over distances of just a couple of feet as they go house to house now seems commonplace.

    These agencies must do better to manage their fleets as well as those who operate them because in the end the taxpayers will pay with poor service and high taxes and fees.

    We once did much better and it can’t be that hard to return to such a place.

  9. LOOK Avatar
    LOOK

    http://barbadosunderground.wordpress.com/?s=did+johnson+kill+kennedy

    http://barbadosunderground.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/barbados-detroit/

    This is just the reason why Barbados should not be peeping into the window of other foreign countries, cities, corporations or even individuals. Barbados is a mess, it’s just a mess. The S&P and Moody’s said so and the United Nations says there are lots of theft there. So, why in God’s name should Barbados or yet BU care if Johnson killed Kennedy . Why should Barbados or yet BU care about the city of Detroit or the General Motors Corporation. President Obama saved General Motors from drowning. General Motors has survived since filing bankruptcy and likewise the city of Detroit. Now who, who in God’s name has attempted to save Barbados. The United States government did not just slap Toyota or General Motors on the hand for for gross negligence. Both, General Motors and the Japanese owned company Toyota will pay dearly. The United States government has fined Toyota 1.2 billion for delaying safety issues and General Motors 35 million.

    The Well Well poster on 06/30/2013@7:00pm said “definitely no parallels between Bim and Detroit, they are like universes apart”. Totally agree. Detroit produces automobiles, watches and bicycles, Barbados only sugar and rum. Detroit is home of the American Auto Industry (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler). The American Auto Industry like Barbados and the City of Detroit has survived and will survive, likewise the American Auto Industry. Detroit, even in bankruptcy has retained its 2.6 billion dollar art collection housed at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The new Detroit Red Wings arena for hockey is going forward at cost of 650 million. Also, Cobo Hall, home of the annual North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit costing 299 million is near completion.

    Today, nearly every municipality or country at some level faces financial stress, even China. Foreign banks are leaving Jamaica. The International Court (Hague, Netherlands) has fined Russia 50 billion dollars for illegally seizing the Yukos Oil Company. Barbados also has been fined quite a large sum. The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in October 2013 awarded Shanique Myrie 75,000 for her case against Barbados for finger rape. Barbados was also ordered to refund Myrie her medical expenses, her airline ticket, and her reasonable legal expenses. Barbados has yet to pay Contractor Al Barack and now ordered to pay the Jamaican woman Shanique Myrie. Barbados must pay. Owen Arthur tells the Nation News (08/14/2014) that “if the Shanique Myrie incident had occurred under his watch, it would not even have gone to court. . . . if the Barbados Labor Party administration had been in government when the matter happened, I would’ve called Portia Simpson-Miller [Prime Minister/Jamaica]” buttttttttt Owen that Al Barack dilema don’t you remember was created during the Barbados Party administration. Although gifted to the DLP in 2008, the BLP during your administration gave birth to you.

    The United States and or Canada’s economy is not as healthy as it could be. Most of Europe is a mess. Barbados is too.

  10. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    The proposed lowe -tech new fleet for the Sanitation Service Authority
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/83717797@N04/14778767968/in/photostream/

  11. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ Colonel Buggy

    Desperate time demand desperate measures.

    I am the first to espouse the theory that as long as the ministers are getting kickbacks from the various contracts for supply of goods and services that our transportation system will be permanently disadvantaged.

    Add the fact that most of the ministers either own or have given licenses to friends and associates that own PSV and we have an equation that makes it necessary to have a dysfunctional Public Transportation System.

    Any idiot can do a search of the internet for the 10 Best Reviews of affordable Vehicle Location systems and arrive at a solution which will allow a traveller to even use their cell phone know when their bus is coming and when to go out to the bus stop instead of waiting in the hot sun fuh um.

    With the issue of bus scheduling out of the way in one paragraph let me deal with the second issue of bus repairs and my proposal of a “IF YOU ENT GOT DRINKS DOAN COME TO MY PARTY ” programme to address the infelicitous repairs scandals that UCAL and now Trans Tech are utilizing on we Bajans. (More kick back fuh de Minister of course)

    Highway 401 is the busiest highway In Canada with about 18 lanes When road painting companies are vying for contracts to supply paint to the government they have to paint a whole stretch of the highway “FOR FREE” and let their paint stay on the highway while it is tested in spring summer autumn or winter.

    If anybody want tuh offer services tuh de Transport Board, especially in dese “times of austerity” let dem tek a vehicle dat is in a specific state and repair it fuh free.

    Dem is to list de parts dat dem use, down to de minutest detail, and let a review board uh engineers from de national institute uh Barbados (mek sport) engineeers, some retired artisans/mechanics/painters what would be a Public Transport ombudsman oversight committee review the longevity uh dem “free repairs” BEFO DEM IS Allowed to submit a proposal tuh ANY UH DE BOARDS DAT GOT GUVMENT VEHICLES TO GET REPAIR!!!

    So when de FVCKING minister come and tell he friend tuh set up a company and two weeks later, to submit a quotation at such en such an amount, de mechanism dat in place to validate de company wuk, and confirm dem capability, will eliminate dese johniny cum latlies.

    But den again I jes’ had de insulin shot so dat idea is one “under de influence” and should be ignored causing it wud mean dat de Chairman/woman and she cronies plussing de minister ent gine be abul, sorry able to tief de money so excuse me ramblings…

  12. David Avatar
    David

    How can so many sanitation trucks be allowed to enter a bad state of repair and nobody be held accountable?

    This is the same ministry that will be overseeing the multimillion dollar wast to energy etc?

  13. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ David [BU]

    You said and I quote “How can so many sanitation trucks be allowed to enter a bad state of repair and nobody be held accountable?”

    A nex one uh de granchilds dem she get she license two munts ago and she did asking me whu de tag up in de right hand uh de windscreen mean dat got on nex service at mean.

    I can throw over a handful for a young new driver not knowing simple car maintenance issues but I would bet the Solid Waste Tax pun me and de Madam chattel house dat, if you did to go to 10 government agencies and check on their vehicle maintenance scheduling logs that 9 of them DO NOT HAVE AN IDEA ABOUT WHEN THE NEXT OIL CHANGE OR SIMPLE SERVICE IS TO BE.

    Add this basic disconnect to the requirements of managing a government vehicle maintenance programme and what we arrive at is a policy of “drive it until it drop to pieces under your ass” that exists across the whole government service.

    “Inbuilt incompetence designed to destroy and semblance of operational readiness” and, given that the Head of Maintenace, in all of the departments, are part of Sir Roy’s union, wunna cyan fire them neider!

    But doan tek whu i saying without any examinations, go check the Police repairs on their vehicles, the QEH ambulances, the MTW trucks, the SSA vehicles, everywhere you go you will see glaring evidence that what i am saying is true

  14. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    pieceuhderockyeahright | August 19, 2014 at 6:46 AM |

    “With the issue of bus scheduling out of the way in one paragraph let me deal with the second issue of bus repairs and my proposal of a “IF YOU ENT GOT DRINKS DOAN COME TO MY PARTY ” programme to address the infelicitous repairs scandals that UCAL and now Trans Tech are utilizing on we Bajans.”

    You are not being fair to UCAL; I know many of the workers of this workshop and have socialised with some of them as recently as Saturday while watching the CPL final.
    UCAL is owned by its workers through a shareholder arrangement. The TB owes UCAL millions of dollars for bus repairs, and they in turn owe their workers shareholder bonuses for the past 3 years as well as suppliers and service providers. Recently, their employees could not be paid on the stipulated pay date and they had to be paid via the Ministry of Finance, as a basis of helping to reduce the debt. However, mechanics continue to repairs buses under these circumstances.
    Ask any mechanic, and they will tell you that they repair buses for a fraction of the fee Trans Tech Inc. charges for undertaking similar repairs, and in many instances they often have to “re-repair” [my word] buses for the same fault TTI previous repaired.
    Whereas TTI has the option of withholding buses until payment has been made, UCAL does not.

  15. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ Artaxerxes

    De ole man have live too long on dis earf and as such bring “ole remembrances” to the fray, of stolen chassis, disappearing out of the yard at weymouth supplies diverted in the trunks of cars and being redistributed to unauthorized recipients.

    The tapestry of life is not based on just a moment in time, for if it were so the snapshot of many a mass murderer would be extrapolated to make them a saint under your worthy rising to protect their (current?) reputation.

    The Tribe of Benjamin one of the twelve tribes of Israel was decimated from 26,000 men to 600 because a few of their men ravaged the wife and concubine of one of their tribe. So along the “timeline” there were perverted men among the “chosen people” who saused them to be put to the sword.

    The same way you rise to the defence of UCAl, I can also rise to the defence of L&N Workshop in Canewood Jackson which has repaired many a vehicle that UCAL has not repaired or condemned to be disposed of. And at a fraction of their costs. L&N works for the TB and is owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by that agency and yet continues to work every single day for this agency.

    I have learnt not to draw swords on issues that I dont know anything about because the truth will make many a man or woman recant the enthusiasm you once applied to a “perspective”

  16. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    pieceuhderockyeahright | August 19, 2014 at 8:23 AM

    “The same way you rise to the defence of UCAl, I can also rise to the defence of L&N Workshop in Canewood Jackson which has repaired many a vehicle that UCAL has not repaired or condemned to be disposed of.”

    At least you have admitted that you “learnt not to draw swords on issues that you dont know anything about”.
    The Transport Board has a Quality Assurance Department that is responsible for the allocation of repairs and maintenance to the relevant service providers, and authorizes the condemnation or non-repairs of buses; these tasks are not undertaken by UCAL.
    Drivers report defective buses to the QA Department, who then allocate repairs or refurbishments to TTI, UCAL, L & N, or any other entity of their choice.

    I think you older folk concentrate too much on looking back on the negative to cloud your judgment of the present or future. Because some indiscretion happened in 1945 by people of that era, it does not necessarily mean that people in 2014 will do the same. Systems that were not present in your time are in place nowadays and people are held accountable. We should learn from our past mistakes and use them as a guide to shape a positive future.

    I respect your view; however, I prefer to be a bit more optimistic.

  17. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    And from last Monday’s Daily Nation.
    DAILY NATION MONDAY ,AUGUST 19,2014 11 Save buses with Regular Repairs

    Guest Column
    by KASPAR COWARD

      The Editorial of the Weekend Nation of August 15,2014 brought to the surface the lack of professionally trained Road Transport Engineers in Barbados.

    Time after time we have to endure the lack of, or restricted services of many government departments that operate vehicle fleets.Unlike the private sector, there seems to be no effort to introduce a practical Preventive Maintenance programme,with one department opting to lease their vehicles from a private sector company rather than maintain their own vehicles in- house. With an average change out of vehicles every five years and the cost of servicing this lease, this in Barbados , could be very costly to the taxpayer, given the fact that this particular fleet is made up of common general service vehicles, that require no specialist maintenance like those of some other utility companies. Those redundant ex- government vehicles will be around, in private hands, working hard for the next ten years plus.
    The Transport Board from its inception, until its vehicle maintenance was farmed out to private entities, had an uncompromising Preventive Maintenance Programme , that would have been the envy of many a similar operation in the United Kingdom. Any bus regardless of its age, on the day of its schedule maintenance, if it were not at the depot, would be met at one of the bus stands as early as possible, taken out of service and immediately replace by one of the units from the reserve pool, with no inconvenience to commuters. And credit for this must be given to such stalwarts as the late Dacosta Payne , Lionel Cain, Berkley Bennet, Tom Osborne, and many other dedicated staffers who laid the framework for one of the most efficient government vehicle workshops that this island has seen.
    The Editorial also touched on the batch acquisition of vehicles, resulting in many of those units purchased in a package will all start breaking down together and requiring changing out together ,a Catch 22 situation that some government fleet operators have now find themselves in. If vehicles are properly maintain, the likelihood of they all going bust at the same time is unlikely. A case in point are the Leyland Tiger Cubs buses purchased by the Transport Board in 1960. I spent a number of years living abroad, came back to Barbados and found some of these buses still in operation ,having given the taxpayers and commuters of this country between 15 to 25 years sterling service.
    Age alone is not the overriding criteria to change a (commercial) vehicle, other factors that must be taken into account are Mileage and Cost of Maintenance . Any two of these three factors may be a justification for the replacement of a unit.
    There are many training courses available in Barbados for Technicians, and other Artisans employed in the Motor Trade , but there seems to be lack of such courses for Road Transport Engineers, who are required to efficiently look after fleet management, in spite of the fact that we now have a City and Guilds of London Institute office in Bridgetown, a universally known and respected leader in vocational training ,and who has worked with Barbados since the days of the now defunct Barbados Technical Institute..
    We appeared to be still operating in the era when vehicles like your average Bedford and Austin, were simple , reliable and very easy to maintain, and constituted the bulk of vehicles in this country, and any company or entity with a number of such vehicle would have appointed its best mechanic as its Foreman, who was responsible for the repair and maintenance of these vehicles.
    It is unfortunate that one of the most vital industries on the island is still looked upon as a “Grease Monkey” operation , best left in the hands of “ those down in the yard.”
    Kaspar Coward is a Licentiate ,City and Guilds (LCGI);institute of Road Transport Engineers,Institute of the Motor Industry, et al

  18. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    When are we as taxpayers going to stop and ask those who governs us. What’s the score.
    It has only just dawned on me that the Transport Board’s Mercedes Buses , the Barbados Water Authority’s Mitsubishis and the like, and the Sanitation Service Authority’s ,Freightliner truck have all be acquired through a single source. If this ain’t a monopoly, what is?
    Why does the Transport Board who has been in the business for the past 56 years have to purchase vehicles through and agency ? The agency will still receive a commission,albeit lower.

  19. Tudor Avatar
    Tudor

    The chairman of Harrison cave – who is also General Manager of Courtesy garage- has also supplied trucks to SSA.

Older Comments
1 2

The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading