Bus owners; are they on the road to recovery?

Last Friday, the transportation industry came to a screeching halt when members of the Belize Bus Owners Cooperative staged a protest closing off the northern and western highways. It resulted in the blockage of all major thoroughfares as well as the burning of tires across the Western and Northern Highways. Commuters were unable to take public transportation from as early as four o’clock in the morning in the west to as late as eleven in the north. The protest signaled the frustration of bus owners over new daily runs granted by the Ministry of Transport to the West Line Company owned by Sergio Chuc, a stalwart supporter of the government for runs in the northern zone. When we left you on Friday, the protest was called off following discussions with Prime Minister Dean Barrow, who admitted that mistakes had been made. All day today negotiations between bus operators and transport officials remained ongoing in the aftermath of the massive countrywide shutdown. This morning the Belizean Bus Association’s president Thomas Shaw revisited the negotiating table. Although Shaw had indicated that they had lost confidence in the Minister of Transport, Melvin Hulse, the first order of business today was a meeting with Hulse. What has been agreed so far is that a handful of runs have been taken away from Sergio Chuc’s West Line which means that BBOC buses can resume runs to the western zone.  News Five spoke with Shaw in Belmopan via phone earlier today to get an update on the transport situation.

Voice of: Thomas Shaw, President, Belizean Bus Association

Thomas Shaw

“So far in the west BBOC, the cooperative, has been given the runs in the west.  They have gotten eight runs in the west, four out of the west and five, nine runs in the west actually.  So we’ll have like four runs coming out in the morning and from west to east and then we’ll have the other runs from east to west, vice versa.  So basically these runs should commence on Wednesday.  Now the runs in the north are still under negotiations due to the fact that the operators in the north we had a meeting yesterday and the outcome of that meeting [unsatisfactory].  I don’t think it was really working out because everybody was actually just looking out for themselves and we had two guys there that were representing basically some of the newcomers and that wasn‘t really working out in the favor of our other members.  So we’re holding a meeting today in Belmopan and we’re going to see what’s the outcome of it.  But as for the west, for the west Sergio Chuc has five runs being taken away from him in the west, that’s from Belize City to San Ignacio and that will be replaced by the BBOC.  So, BBOC will be running in both directions this coming Wednesday.”