Budget reductions to the Department of Public Transportation will result in the financial equivalent to taxpayers of nine fewer full-time drivers.However, Transportation Minister Terry Lister said that due to rescheduling the bus service to limit overtime, the Department would actually hire more drivers.“We will have to hire new bus drivers, but save $500,000,” he said. “Now isn’t that a trick?”According to the recently released Budget, the department had budgeted for the equivalent of 178 full-time bus operators in the fiscal year ending in April.However, the 201½012 Budget will only support the equivalent of 169 full-time drivers.Wages in the department will fall by around a million dollars from $12.48 million this fiscal year to $11.43 million in the fiscal year starting in April.Salaries in the Department are also expected to fall from $2.9 million to $2.66 million, and the cost of training is expected to drop from $132,000 to $25,000.Announcing the budget on Friday, Mr Lister said a new bus schedule would reduce overtime hours to the extent that the Department would hire new drivers and still lower the amount paid in wages.“Both the Ministry and the union are working together on a new bus schedule,” he said. “We are probably about 80 percent along the way there, and we’re hoping to have it in place early in the new fiscal year.“This is what will happen when the new system comes into place, and we’re working hard to get there.”The Budget book also revealed that the bus service missed many of its output goals this fiscal year, with more accidents and complaints recorded than in the previous year.According to figures in the Budget, the bus service experienced nine accidents and 11 complaints for every 100,000 miles driven. The previous year the service experienced eight accidents and three complaints per 100,000 miles.And while fewer buses were kept out of service this year than last (on average 18 buses were out of service, as opposed to 25 last year), the number of vehicle road calls doubled from 21 to 42.Despite these troubles, other areas of the service showed improvements, with more than 98 percent of buses leaving on schedule and gross revenue increasing from $2.74 per mile to $4.21 per mile.lUseful websites: www.gov.bm.