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What’s up with the bus schedule?

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Promises, promises: BIU president Chris Furbert, centre, in cahoots with transport minister Zane DeSilva, left, and Roger Todd, the director of the Department of Public Transportation, was cock-a-hoop over the new winter bus schedule, but little has been heard since and a January 21 deadline has passed (Photograph by Akil Simmons)

There have been bus cancellations all during the month of January, ranging from three routes being cancelled to up to 26 cancellations. A Canadian consultant has been paid copious amounts of money to come up with a workable roster that clearly is not working.

What is really going on here? This is completely unacceptable. Mr and Mrs Bermuda, and the public in general, deserve so much better.

On December 13, with much fanfare and ado, we were informed that a new winter bus schedule would take effect on January 7 this year.

Bermuda Industrial Union president Chris Furbert hailed December 13 as a “great day”, as the attempts to complete a new bus schedule have spanned the Progressive Labour Party and One Bermuda Alliance administrations, and go back to 2001.

This new bus schedule would, purportedly, reduce the number of buses required on a daily basis to a sustainable level, which should have resulted in a more reliable public bus service.

On January 4, the Department of Public Transportation announced that the winter schedule that was to be launched on January 7 would now be introduced on January 21.

On January 11, it was reported that, although the effective date for the bus schedule would not be January 21, the 2019 winter bus schedule will remain unchanged and information regarding a new effective date would be forthcoming.

It is now January 26, and the silence regarding what the effective date will be is louder than the posturing on January 13 by Mr Furbert, transport minister Zane DeSilva, and Roger Todd, the director of the DPT.

I would say they were making much ado about nothing!

If Mr DeSilva believes that the new bus schedule could be sustained with the existing fleet of buses, and that this new schedule is the best way to ensure an efficient and reliable public transportation service, why is it not in place?

When will Mr and Mrs Bermuda be able to enjoy reliable, consistent public transportation instead of the litany of broken promises by this government?

Leah Scott is Deputy Opposition leader, the Shadow Minister of Tourism and Transport, and the MP for Southampton East Central (Constituency 30)

Leah Scott