est. 2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

,

Plan to Increase Bus fare a Heartless Act

We haven’t made the decision if it will go up by a $1.50 or if it will go up by $2, we don’t know now, but certainly all of that has to be accessed to make a decision as to where bus fares will go – Minister of Transport William Duguid During the debate of…

,

We haven’t made the decision if it will go up by a $1.50 or if it will go up by $2, we don’t know now, but certainly all of that has to be accessed to make a decision as to where bus fares will go – Minister of Transport William Duguid

During the debate of the 2019 Appropriations Bill and Estimates- The Standing Finance Committee, Minister Duguid felt sufficiently emboldened to announce that active consideration is being given to a hike in bus fare. The idea that the bus fare maybe increased by $1.50 or $2.00 smacks of a callousness which challenges rational thought.

After ten years of living in a challenging economic environment and the understandable fatigue that has enveloped the citizenry- Duguid’s revelation must be labelled no more than ‘flying the proverbial kite“.   There is no way the government of Barbados can consider raising bus fare in the economic climate of the BERT variety.

It is a nobrainer to the least observant that the segment of population dependent on public transport occupies the lower socio economic rung. For the government to have the ‘bravado’ to broach an increase in bus fare at this time smacks of political-rape.

Have the chickens coming home to roost?

  • The poor financial state of the Transport Board is a fact.
  • That successive governments have used the Transport Board as a political play ground is a fact.
  • That the last government supported the Transport Board to starve UCAL of resources and at the same time outsource work to private contractors for hundreds of thousands dollars is a fact.
  • The last Transport Board leadership under Sandra Forde despite expending hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain an old fleet was unable to purchase a single new bus, a fact.

The biggest irony is that we have the incumbent government signalling to increase bus fare to $4.00, however, the current financial state of the Transport Board is a result of political patronage practised by BOTH DLP and BLP over the years. There is the oft saying that a people get the government they deserve. This smells like a numbers game by accountants determined to shave numbers to fit into an excel worksheet.

In a related matter the blogmaster took careful note of former Minister of Transport Michael Lashley successful attempt to explore a ‘loophole’ in the law which saw Magistrate Graveney Bannister dismissing a case against a PSV worker he represented.

Huh?

 

68 responses to “Plan to Increase Bus fare a Heartless Act”

  1. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    The staffing of the TB is the prime reason the TB is not discontinued. The private operators have been operating for 40+ years, at TB fare rates and making money. Just abandon public transport, and let the cards fall; if there is demand, somebody will grab it, and charge accordingly. If the TB is out of the service, the GoB can force operators to cover routes with lower load factors. The GoB can implement fare rules, just as they do for other services owned by others.
    Interestingly, the labour movement have never grabbed a share of this private market. It is obvious disbanding the TB is one of the easier BIG cost saving measures for the GoB. It isn’t as though they don’t have a well established replacement.

  2. David Avatar
    David

    @You have to factor that the PSVs cherrypick the profitable routes and the time of day to operate read peak. During the Estimates Debate we were inform the disproportionate number of PSVs on the Coastal route.

  3. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    If fare increases are vigorously rejected then responsible persons would be forced to make a detailed justification for a fare increase.

    Is the fact that there are so few buses on the road and such a huge staff the main reason the TB is not making any money. Is the number of the buses on the road too low to reach a ‘break even’ point? The TB is saddled with fixed expenses and unproductive bodies.

    A fare hike may be necessary but it should not be accepted as a fait accompli. What if the fare goes up and we have even fewer buses on the road? That’s what happens in wonderland.

    Details! Details! Make a stand. Try to gather details of how things will improve. Fight….. We do not fight for anything. We discuss, throw big words around and in the end we go along.

    Remind me of a story where Winston Churchill is reputed to have said..”Woman, we have established what you are. We are only haggling the price”

  4. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Reworking PSV rules and requirements is a whole lot easier than trying to fix the TB. And whereas 90% of such things come with accusations about foreigners, or skin tone, here we have an industry of locals, the majority of whom are black entrepreneurs.
    The conversion from public to private in transport has many former examples, and many of the same considerations appear time and time again.

  5. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    LOL at Theo, methinks that quote was about hookers and wasn’t WC.
    The story… a wealthy man at a function asked an attractive lady if she would consider spending the night for $100,000. She agreed. Sometime later he saw the lady again and told her due to extensive global travels he had the currency confused, his offer was actually $10,000. Again the lady agreed. Then shortly before the rendezvous hour, the man again saw the lady and told her he couldn’t afford $10,000, would she consider $1,000. Infuriated, the lady replied, ‘who the hell do you think I am’. The man responded who you are has been established, we are merely negotiating price.

  6. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    David BU at 6:34 PM

    In a privatized and properly regularized transport system no cherry picking should be allowed. The routes would be allocated with the destinations emblazoned on the front and sides of the buses. These routes will include a mixture of rural and urban districts.

  7. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    @David

    Agree that if public transportation is transitioned outright to the PSV sector the people on the marginal or the rural routes will suffer), after all what incentive is there to service these routes when there are many routes in which the operators can make “short turns” to maximize profits.

    As for the argument that PSV’s make profits on the same fee schedule so why can’t the TB, that argument is only valid if there is a level playing field and that is far from being reality.

  8. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Sargeant

    The concessionaires will all have long routes including rural and urban areas. Routes to which they are assigned.Failure to abide by contract would incur taking away the concession.
    The PSVs are profitable mainly by overloading their vehicles.They are required to give the owner a fixed income.They get to keep the excess. They take the risks hence the overload of the court system by this sub-sector.

  9. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    The TB has cost so much money over the years, if the GoB wishes to partially subsidize the fare in lower load areas, that is likely to be far more cost effective, than operating the buses in that area. Everywhere location has a price? I can find less expensive locations away from major centres, yet expect the longer travel route will be the same cost as a shorter one? Like the airlines have learned, it is sometimes more cost effective to run smaller equipment on the low load routes and feed to a point, where other low load routes converge, and transferring those passengers to larger equipment.
    As VC pointed out if the route operators play tricks they can lose the route, and potentially other routes.

  10. WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog Avatar
    WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog

    Plodding along…

    “Government has reached the targets set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), under the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme, for the October to December 2018 quarter.

    However, in the first quarterly public report released this morning by the BERT Monitoring Committee, co-chair Ed Clarke told reporters the total revenue target of $2.078 billion for April to December fell short by $56 million, or 2.7 per cent.

    Clarke, who shares the chairmanship with General Secretary of the Barbados Workers Union (BWU) Senator Toni Moore, explained that although the Government failed to achieve the prescribed revenues, a $175 million drop in expenditure compensated for that shortfall.”

  11. SirFuzzy (Former Sheep) Avatar
    SirFuzzy (Former Sheep)

    @ Vincent Codrington February 22, 2019 9:58 PM

    That may be the case of teaching old dog new tricks. But the old behaviour learnt over many decades will be hard or almost impossible to eliminate. and wil the new behaviour has any benefits for the actors involved? hmm

    Barbados does not have a very good or strong foundation when i comes to the enforcement of laws quickly fairly and adequately.
    There will still be political connections either direct or indirect. The Transport Authority will have to be become “apolitical”. An apolitical organisation in Barbados is a relic of the past or a phenomena or an undiscovered cheap energy source.

    If it would happen. The non performance of a PSV operator on a route will not equate to any real sanction on him/her unless he/she is known to be on the other side of the political divide or has not friends or family that know anyone that can or will pull a string

    Just saying/asking ( but looking reality in the face).

  12. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    @Vincent Codrington February 22, 2019 2:06 PM “How is it that the PSVs are making a profit charging the same fare as the subsidized public transport? What are they doing that the TB need to take on board?”

    A Simple Response: Maybe not as much steel in dey?

  13. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    @SirFuzzy (Former Sheep) February 22, 2019 2:27 PM “secondly work out how to maintain it”

    Since each motor vehicle comes with a maintenance manual provided from the manufacturer, what is so hard about reading and following the manufacturers instructions?

  14. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    @SirFuzzy (Former Sheep) February 22, 2019 2:27 PM ” If must be a laugh among the consultants that with 190 plus units that 47 are functional.”

    Which calypsonian wrote “d white people laughin’ at we.”

  15. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    @Sargeant February 22, 2019 2:29 PM “a roving band of semi outlaws answering to nobody and flouting the rules (what rules?) daily. They have become the only reliable public transportation service for many.”

    You understand that the political class [all parties] and their acolytes are exactly the people who have inflicted the roving bands of semi outlaws on us, don’t you? Try speaking to any one of the outlaws and he will ask you to disembark the RH van and ask you “you know who own dis?”

    The transport system is as bad as it is because the politicial and monied classes like it so. After all they never have to catch a ZR van. They never have to wait 3-5 hours for a Transport Board bus. They can get a tax funded Mercedes every three years.

    So why should they care?

    When it comes to public transport in Barbados these people can teach Satan to sin.

  16. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    @SirFuzzy (Former Sheep) February 22, 2019 2:36 PM ” There is tech for this.”

    It is not a matter of tech.

    Nobody wants tech.

    If there was good tech then we would know how much money the sector and individual owners are making.

    And then that money should be TAXED.

    Follow the money people.

    Nobody wants to pay the tax on the huge cash incomes being earned.

  17. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    @David February 22, 2019 6:34 PM “You have to factor that the PSVs cherrypick the profitable routes and the time of day to operate read peak…we were inform the disproportionate number of PSVs on the Coastal route.”

    No David.

    The PSV’s don’t get to cherry pick.

    The oversupply of PSV’s on the coastal routes? ALL of those licences were granted by government…to their friends/family/associates/party faithfuls [all parties]…so that their friends/family/associates/party faithfuls [all parties] can make money. And as it is entirely cash money, guess how much of that money is declared on the income tax forms.

    Follow the cash David. Follow the cash, and you will find the CORRECT answer.

    It is NOT about PSV’s cherry picking routes.

  18. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    @TheOGazerts February 22, 2019 6:40 PM “Remind me of a story where Winston Churchill is reputed to have said..”Woman, we have established what you are. We are only haggling the price”

    If the passengers are whores, then the political/economic classes are pimps.

Older Comments
1 2

Leave a Reply to SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLifeCancel reply

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

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

Continue reading