Tenants at the former US Base lands in St. David's are calling for better public transport in the area.

In the two years since the property reverted to Government, a high school (St.

George's Secondary), two emergency services (Police and Fire) and various small businesses have moved into the area and further development is expected to take place quickly.

But several tenants have complained to The Royal Gazette that no provision was made for public transportation in the area.

With no direct buses from the city to St. David's and connecting buses to and from St. George's only running once an hour on weekdays, people -- including students -- are often left stranded.

Opposition Sen. Neletha Butterfield, who recently relocated her CARE (Children and Adults Reaching for Education) computer school to the Base lands, recalled seeing as many as 50 students from St. George's Secondary and St. David's Primary hitching rides to school after missing the 8.15 a.m. bus.

She also said students without transportation who attended her school, opposite Clearwater Beach, had the same problem.

Base tenants call for buses "There are no buses going into Clearwater which is a public beach,'' Sen.

Butterfield said. "Young people are walking to classes because they are eager to learn.'' Public buses travel into St. David's at 6.55 a.m., 7.15 a.m., then quarter past every hour until 6.15 p.m. from Monday through Friday. They leave St.

David's at 7.20 a.m., 7.40 a.m. then every hour up to 6.40 p.m.

CARE student Tecia Boland said the lack of buses to Clearwater was an inconvenience to everyone in the area who relied on public transportation.

"It is a long walk in,'' she said. "Sometimes we have to wait an hour or we have to call our teacher.'' Tecia suggested buses should run through the area every 15 minutes at least until 11 a.m.

"Whoever misses it (the bus) after then can wait because that's too late to be going to school,'' she added.

Another CARE student, Tamisha Smith, speculated that St. George's Secondary students -- who now attend classes in the old Roger B. Chaffee School -- were often late as a result of the bus system.

And St. George's Secondary principal Charlotte Ming said she was very much aware of the bus problem.

"We've been complaining about it for two years,'' she said.

The lack of an adequate bus service particularly became a problem for the students when they were sick and needed to go home during the school day, were scheduled to compete in sports activities outside the school, or were given detention.

"For example,'' she said, "if we have to play a softball game at Shelly Bay, we have to get teachers to take the kids.

"Even if I have to keep my kids in for detention, it becomes a problem, particularly when it is not daylight saving time.'' Mrs. Ming said she had been asking for extra buses "forever'' for the morning.

The afternoon was not so bad, Mrs. Ming added.

"Buses come into school yard to collect those students going to St. George's and Hamilton,'' she said. "But they really need a better bus service for the area.

One of the MPs for the area, Grace Bell, agreed.

"This is an ideal time for us to have a loop in that in that area,'' she said of the former Base lands which are in her St. George's South constituency.

Mrs. Bell said four buses passed the Base entrance within every hour to go to St. George's or Hamilton.

"So I can't see why we can't get buses every half an hour in St. David's,'' she said.

PTB director Herman Basden said setting up a new bus route depended on demand.

He recalled that Dockyard faced a similar situation before the West End Development Corporation took over.

"We increased the services as the demand for it grew,'' Mr. Basden said.

"Now we have buses running in that area every 15 minutes.'' He said a PTB representative met some three months ago with the Bermuda Land Development Company to discuss the transportation situation in St. David's.

"We suggested that they go with a minibus service and as the area developed, we would go in and do more with them,'' Mr. Basden recalled. "We said we would see what their demands were like.'' BLDC chairman Vince Ingham said: "I'm not aware until now of concerns that have been expressed by tenants of the Base. But given this type of concern, it is something that I will pass on to our officers so they can poll tenants using the area and see if there is a concern about this.''