Transport Dept. reminds bus owners to follow road rules
If you ever ride on public transportation, you can expect to see buses moving outside their scheduled runs, the aisles filled with standees and no trash bins to place garbage on long journeys. According to the Department of Transport, there are many established regulations that have been broken by several companies. According to the department’s public relations officer, any company that regularly breaks these rules can expect its road service permits to be suspended.
Via Phone:Rene Mendez, P.R., Department of Transport
“Bus operators need to have a standby bus at each location, especially in the city of Belmopan and Belize City. The policy is that each operator must have a bus in the vicinity of the terminal building to properly deal with the issue of waiting passengers and to properly address overcrowded buses. This applies, specifically during peak hours. Six a.m. to eight a.m. and this is from San Ignacio to Belmopan and Belize City to Belmopan as well as from Belmopan to Belize City, San Ignacio and Punta Gorda. This is in the afternoons into the evening from three p.m. to five-thirty p.m. daily. This applies mainly to the following bus companies: National Transport Services, James Bus Line, Shaws Bus Service, Belize Bus Owners Cooperatives and Guerra’s Bus Service. The department notes with concern as well that of recent, there are no busses on standby when needed. This policy applies at this time to buses serving the west and southern zones. Another policy that the buses must start adhering to is not to refuel or stop at any gas station when passengers are on board. The department also notes this needs to be done prior to departure from terminals or the respective departure areas where the buses leave from. Any bus company failing to adhere to the law, the Department of Transport will recommend to the transport board to suspend road service permit.”
Mendez said that buses are insured for its specific seating capacity and regulations don’t allow for standees; doors must also be closed while buses in motion and garbage receptacles are also mandatory.
It took too long to start controlling those buses in Belize, they were out of control, nasty and unsafe for the people standing up in the busses.
I hope they stick to their rules though.
The transport department is failing the travelling public. The department cannot continue to treat the travelling public with undignified treatments. The Transport department must immediately direct the bus conductor to sell numbered ticket for all buses departing from the Belize City Bus Depot. Twice this week I had the occasion to travel with an overseas family member for Government business in Belmopan.
It was shameful to have this visiting female family member jostling for a seat, and to make matters worse she had to share a seat with a total stranger while I as her father had to sit with another total stranger. The back door of the bus was opened and people rushed in through the back, causing us to separate even though we enter the front door of the bus together. The back door must not be opened, except for luggage. Please pre-sell numbered seats tickets.
DEAJ
There should be a ban on drivers talking on their cell phones while bus is in motion. Sometimes they are so occupied that they dont even get the signal from passenger when to stop. This is another form of tragedy waiting to happen. I am happy that the transports department is making the rules clear and hope there will be follow up to ensure it is being adhered to and likewise applies to all bus operators and not only the unpopular few that does not have inside connection in the transport department.
We belizean who use the buses…….. they serve their function. They get us from piont A to point B AT A REASONABLE COST. The buses should be cleaned at the end of the route.
ONE THING THEY COULD IMPLEMENT IS GIVING THE FIRST SIX TO EIGHT SEAT TO THE ELDERLY AND OR DISABLED!!!!!!!!
Drivers should be charge for breaking the rules, as a commuter from Bze to Bmp I find it digusting when you have to rush to get in the bus, leaving Belize city would want you to commit murder, cause when the crowd rush in the bus, you have to be really strong to get in or else you get left, as one bus leave another should be in place, each company should have a personel from each trasport company to be there and give information and see that passenger get in the buses without pushing, to see that passengers are well seated.sometimes i am waiting for one hourbefore the bus arrives, then with all the crowd pushing, cursing, the ones that comes last get in and you who have been waiting one hour have to wait another hour, meantime you have to develop the strenght and courage to push, curse and get in the bus, or else you wait another hour.
OUR NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION IS DISGUSTING!!! i HAVE BEEN TO OTHER COUNTRIES AND THE BUS SYSTEM ARE MORE ORDERLY!! HOPE TO SEE SOME IMPROVMENTS.
Hey, couldn’t agree more. We need rules to be followed and enforced, cleanliness lead to better health and comfort, comfort leads to satisfied commuters and safety is a friend to everyone. Trash bags keep the bus, highway and people clean(HEALTH). Everyone gets seated and handicapped seats first 3or4 rows and designated seats(COMFORT). Doors locked when travelling and no standees(SAFETY). You pay for a service you deserve it,everyone wins!
The forget to mention that they will penalize passengers that throw garbage out the window. Or get them off the bus. We need trash bins and also need to educate people on disposing of garbage inside the bus.
the transport department should impose that conductors should find seats for passengers, sometimes one person is on a seat but that person is reserving that other space for his friend or boy/girlfriend. to me first come first serve. this is very disgusting, please some buses brokdown on the road and owners of buses should have buses that are in good working condition that is why we the commuters pay our fare. buses that are 5-10 years should not be running. We need good service ,we will pay the price. let us make Belize look, healthy and beautiful. Let the government also invest on good highways all the international roads need to widen and pave just like the road to international airport.
I need these buses to start pulling off the road when they need to stop. ESPECIALLY the northern buses and ladyville buses. They stop middle of the road and then without any indication they move off. We need to start revoking some licence in order to get some discipline on the road.
i tell unu belizeans the chicken bus is so much fun to ride in its all natural people armpits in ur face if u lucky to sit down and conductor a z z all on ur shoulder while collecting and please dont get lucky and get seated next to a menonite cause ur eyes go burn u till them get off with them armpit weh smell like onion ahhh but its so much fun on the chicken bus i hope it never changes lol
I just hope they implement these rules, no standees, but put more buses on the road, because when there are no standees in the bus allowed, so many people are left behind, this sunday i was in belmopan waiting for d bus to cayo, finally it arrived around 6:30, people rushed so much that a man almost got hurt while going through the gate. I did not rushed, i just stayed behind and my husband and i took a taxi to a restaurnat and we waited for the 8pm bus because this is the light hour.
But wait, the people that were not allowed in the bus, rushed out and waited at the corner and as the bus left the terminal it stopped at the corner for these people, it is so patetic that the managment of the terminal have been allowing these things.
Actually you get what you pay for in riding the bus in Belize especially the ones on short runs I always wonder how these guys make money with the price of fuel and the high maintenance associated with running one of those bus in Belize on those pot hole ridden streets, the only way to make a decent profit would seem like to overfill them and and try to get ahead of the other guy at the next stop thereby increasing the likeliness of an accident, everything is a trade off with more regulations comes higher bus fares, it would seems like they tried the ticketing concept in the past and it did not work out since there are several of what appears to be ticketing windows at he Belize city terminal that are not being utilized.