Ladyville Is Not the Only Place Having Bus Disputes

The battle of the buses in Ladyville is a situation that the Ministry of Public Utilities, Energy and Logistics says is trying to resolve. As we have reported, tensions are rising between four bus operators in Ladyville over routes, scheduled runs and even passengers.  Things got physical on Monday when one of the bus operators allegedly attacked a female conductor.  C.E.O. at the ministry, Marconi Leal says the industry is oversaturated with outdated bus permits. He told News Five that the issue in Ladyville is a prime example of a situation occurring across the country.

Marconi Leal

Marconi Leal, C.E.O., Ministry of Public Utilities, Energy and Logistic

“We did see the video that was put out by the different media houses with regards to the young lady and the story that she told regarding other bus operators from the company and what had transpired there. So based on that, of course the police must investigate and that is their involvement. But from our standpoint, one of the things we have been doing and we are doing across the country is really assessing these permits that are currently in place. Ladyville is a perfect example. We are now on the ground doing a study. Some of the permits and the timings on the permits because a proper study was not done in the past, we now have challenges where bus operators are claiming that there is an impact there. Basically, the study entails looking at the amount of traffic they have during peak times and off peak times. The challenge comes to play in the off-peak times when they only have four or five people in their bus, and they want to go out of their current route and schedule to try to make additional to basically cover their cost and make a profit.  The good news is that as a part of the IDB Transportation Reform Project that the Transport Department is engaged in, and right now we are finalizing the consultancy that will support us with that, it’s a country wide study that will be done to get the details in regards to all these bus operators, the traffic we have and then we do a full revamp to all those permits to enhance the scheduling and routing.”