Chief Transport Officer says they will remedy bus problem
In an update to a story aired in our newscast last night on the chaos in the transportation industry, we contacted the Chief Transport Officer, Candelaria Zaldivar, to get the ministry’s feedback to the glitches in the new system on the Southern route. Zaldivar told us this evening that she has been meeting with the relevant parties to see how they can remedy the problems. But it seems as though the overcrowding, late arrivals and departures at terminals and stranded passengers on the highways will continue at least for a while longer. That’s because Zaldivar says that no concrete measures have been taken to address those issues.
Candelaria Zaldivar, Chief Transport Officer
“As the problem arises where we see the glitches in the system then we have to rectify and so we are still in that process; it’s only a month.”
Marion Ali
“Yeah, because the system was designed to improve on the old system.”
Candelaria Zaldivar
“Yes, it was and that’s why I said, no system is perfect so we have to go along and change it as the problem arises.”
Marion Ali
“We just brought to light, the existing problems from the old system that’s recurring in this new system and we were wondering if perhaps your department had observed those same glitches.”
Candelaria Zaldivar
“Yes, we observed those and we have heard the cries of the people and, like I said, I will be meeting along with the chairman of the board and we will be meeting with the board to see how we can rectify those. For now the Transport Department could deal with the enforcement part of it but in terms of whether we will need to reschedule the buses or so, that would have to come from through the Board.”
Marion Ali
“Okay, can you say how long now before you have something more concrete in place to take care of these existing problems?”
Candelaria Zaldivar
“Well, we’re hoping that we could deal with these as quickly as possible, maybe within the next week or so because the commuters will be affected. We will deal with it as quickly as possible and, like I said, we have to go through the procedures, and it is the transport Board that approves road service permits, not the Transport Department.”
“We met with the bus owners; I think it was the first week of November. Some of these problems were aired out and we’re trying; we’re working on it. We have to go through a process, we can’t just say, okay—we have to monitor. We have to monitor because you may have seen that problem yesterday and maybe today it’s not there again. It’s not everyday that we encounter the same issue so it’s something that we have to monitor. You don’t want to just change the system because it is just there today. If it’s something that is reoccurring, then we need to change it but if it’s seasonal or it happens today and tomorrow it doesn’t happen again, then we have to monitor and see because we don’t want to just change the system because today something went wrong.”
Marion Ali
“Now, Ms. Zaldivar, I want to disagree with you because the people I interviewed were people who take the buses every single day going to school and going to work. It’s not something that occurs occasionally, it’s something that occurs everyday. These are the people I went and I interviewed.”
Candelaria Zaldivar
“We’re not saying that the problems are not there, but what we’re saying is that we’re monitoring and we’re trying as we go along to put in the proper changes into the system.”
Zaldivar also told News Five that in the next few days, there should be some plan to iron out the wrinkles.
