Transport Minister Ewart Brown expressed his disappointment at the defeat of the GPS bill in the Senate last night.

And he declined, for the time being, to reveal what his next move will be in his goal to help improve Bermuda's taxi industry.

“As a Minister of the Government I have accepted with considerable disappointment the Senate's decision,” he said in a statement last night.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who worked so hard to bring this progressive legislation to fruition. In particular, I would like to express my profound gratitude to the permanent secretary Marc Telemaque, and the director of Transport Control Kevin Monkman, both of whom dedicated untold hours in this effort.

“In addition, I would like to thank the Premier, my Cabinet colleagues and fellow Parliamentarians for their support in this effort to improve Bermuda's taxi service.

“Our Ministry shall accept this decision and re-dedicate ourselves to the modernisation of our transportation system.”

Shadow Transport Minister Jamahl Simmons called on Dr. Brown last night to “resist the temptation to be vindictive” after the failure of the bill to pass through the Senate after the bitter stand-off between Government and the taxi drivers.

Instead, he urged the Minister to bring forward legislation increasing taxi fares and allowing for shared rides to and from the airport, issues that Opposition Senate leader Kim Swan said during the Senate debate were separate from the issue of digital dispatch.

In response to that, Dr. Brown declined to officially say what the future would bring. Those issues were included in the GPS bill defeated yesterday.

Mr. Simmons, who offered his own services as a facilitator between Government and the taxi industry, also called for a comprehensive review of the industry, saying the problems need to be identified before the right changes to be made.

When asked if he felt Government had a point in saying that digital dispatch could provide them with the data needed for such a review, he said GPS could not answer questions such as, for example, why drivers were refusing fares they thought were not financially viable.

A comprehensive review, on the other hand, could answer such questions, providing Government and the taxi industry with better information to come up with a workable solution.

And Mr. Simmons called on the industry to take advantage of this opportunity to come back to Government with their ideas, pointing out that many of the ideas in the UBP election platform last summer came from the industry itself. “I know they can do it.”