Minister of Transport Says New Bus Fleets Must Be Improved, Not New

Bus operators who are engaged in discussions with the Ministry of Transport have put forward their concerns as it relates to meeting the demands of the ministry. These include the fact that they cannot access adequate financing to purchase fleets of brand new electric buses, and that they would need ten-year permits to ensure their ability to repay their loans. It is an ongoing discussion – one that the Minister of Transport told News Five today; the Department of Transport and the ministry might need to be a bit more lenient about with the bus operators.

Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Transport

Rodwell Ferguson

“It’s going to take a while so we’ll even give them a tiered approached or a phased approach to say you know what, by 2024 I want see all the fleets changed. But we realize and recognize that they do not have the funds to go to the banks or even the assets to apply. So when we tell them we want a brand new 2022 bus, we sent certain criteria to them, we meet with them every so often and we tell them please, we’re not putting you under pressure to bring in 2022 buses but start the approach. So we said December twenty-second as the beginning. I want to see some transformation starting December 2022. I nuh wa put no pressure pahn yoh fi she I want yoh whole fleet change by December 2022. Wa 2022 da roughly four hundred thousand (dollars) landed in Belize, soh we nuh di pressure dehn but no more bus with no school seat weh da fi children. Soh if you wa have wa Blue Bird bus, maybe a 2005, you must change it to bucket seats. Or we want to see you bring in the MCI’s weh the commuter wa get a more comfortable ride. The ideal situation would be in this position now because wi di change the fleets, da figure out how we can find any organization weh wudda want fund the entire industry and go direct electric one time, because by 2030 we are going to be forced to go electric because the world is going electric. Soh I di look all round the world fi figure out weh part I could find somebody weh could come and she “ha, see the funds ya,” with a government guarantee to provide brand new buses on the highways of this country.”