Latest update March 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 26, 2014 Editorial
Hopefully the various comments accompanying government’s decision to utilize the services of big buses, including remarks ranging from it being an electioneering gimmick to the lack of foresight, to the initiative being unsustainable, have not escaped the notice of the subject minister. Strangely enough, during the mid-1990s the administration baulked when government was presented with the opportunity to facilitate this mode of transportation with buses from Brazil.
The principal obstacle confronting the prospective operators was the diktat that the buses had to use the Parade Ground as their terminus instead of the Stabroek Market Square, where formerly, commuters joined the Guyana Transport Services bus line which operated in Georgetown.
The unspoken motivation for refusing to accommodate those larger forms of public transport was the fact that, not a few public officials in positions of influence themselves owned the new faster minibuses. In other words the big buses were not welcomed since they posed a definite threat to the profitability of those small bus operators. In that regard, history will never be kind to those selfish persons who used their public office to make minibuses a permanent fixture, with the attendant culture which was unleashed upon the unsuspecting Guyanese traveling public.
It is no idle comment to say that blame for the alarming road fatalities occasioned by speeding minibuses driven by young men with barely discernible literacy and numeracy skills lies squarely at the door of those high officials. Additionally many are the anecdotes of the first entrepreneurs who had introduced vehicles which seated twenty-six passengers and were – by various artifices forced to fold and depart. Admittedly on the roads back then, the volume of traffic was hardly a significant proportion to what obtains today. Furthermore, except for the hire cars plying the Berbice and Linden routes, vehicular speeds to which we have grown accustomed were virtually unknown.
Although understandable, the current demands for a fare increase by private operators of public transport seemingly ignore the premise of affordability. It is assumed that the majority of public transport commuters are the working poor who have no other means of meeting their travel needs. And therefore government’s ostensible desire to maintain a low fare structure might be interpreted as a measure to ensure social equity. However, this places the intended beneficiaries at a distinct disadvantage in terms of exposure to a poorly-operated minibus system which, to be financially sustainable, compromises on the quality of service provided to consumers.
Therefore it would require the formulation of a realistic public transport policy with appropriate regional input to even begin to address citizens’ concerns. But until then, the Public Works Ministry will of necessity have to engage the current private operators to adopt improved standards in terms of reliable service and affordable fares.
Mention has also been made of the prohibitive cost of fuel and its impact on the profit margin of operators. With the difficulties Guyana is experiencing in the sugar sector, it does not take any great leap of imagination to explore the science and technological capability of the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST) to investigate the production of an alternative source of fuel that is a byproduct of the sugar cane.
It will be argued across the board that the smaller buses get commuters to their destination faster than the big buses, with no reflection on the number of lives lost through speeding since minibuses entered the public transport scene. The fact that this country’s road system does not cater for priority usage of specified classes of vehicles, and the narrow width of the roadways, makes it impractical to assign that status to large buses to compensate for time which would otherwise be lost due to congestion.
Nothing of the foregoing should be seen as absolving the Public Works Ministry of its fundamental responsibility for the general coordination of the various facets of the public transport system. In that regard, commuters and operators of minibuses alike could benefit from a demand assessment and a policy review of duty-free concessions by examining the inclusion of the cost of spares and replacement parts if second hand vehicles continue to be imported. But for now we have to endure the correctible anomalies.
Listen to the man that is throwing Guyanese bright future away
Mar 19, 2024
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