Electric Buses on The Way; City Fares May Decrease
Rodwell Ferguson
The arrival of Belize City’s electric buses has been a long-awaited event that will be part of a bigger pilot project across the country. Those two buses, according to Minister of Transport, Rodwell Ferguson, will arrive at the end of January and will be handed over to the Belize City Council to run in the city. The other three will arrive around the middle of 2024 and will run in the north and west of the country. The minister gave us an update on the buses today.
Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Transport
“We’re getting five EV buses in 2024. Two will go to police, to the council. Yes, that should be here at the end of January. Those will be administered by the Belize City Council, so I hope by at least February 1st. Those will be functional. Then three are coming around June, July of 2024. Those will service the Northern Highway and the Western Highway, so hopefully when they come, that will be like a pilot run for one year. After one year, we are going to determine what will be the next phase. If I can even share this, the ministry did a concept paper to the European Union and after our concept paper, we are going to our proposal. But many countries applied for an X amount of buses and we have already passed the concept paper stage. So we are doing a proposal. Hopefully we can get some additional buses for them for the commuters and it will be a share between the bus operators and the grant from the European Union.”
Marion Ali
“Those are for the countrywide ones, okay, but going back to the Belize City electric buses, will the city taking over those runs displace the business of the private owners who currently conduct those?”
Rodwell Ferguson
“No, they created a new one to be able to not affect the present private bus owner. So let’s hope and see when it starts if that will affect them. But it’s a beginning.”
Marion Ali
“And what about the prices that people pay? I think it’s $2 now to reach our destination.”
Rodwell Ferguson
“It could be the same price or less because it’s a pilot project. Nobody paid for the buses, so it’s a grant. So it could be the same price or less just on a pilot project for one year.”
