Gilharry Bus Owner files for judicial review because of routes

Fred Lumor

A little over three weeks ago, bus operators effected a countrywide shutdown of the transportation industry when negotiations with government failed over bus routes issued to West Line, owned by a high ranking U.D.P. supporter.  In the days that followed, temperatures simmered when a number of operators including members of the Belize Bus Owners Cooperative were granted runs in the northern and western zones. But the BBOC’s umbrella organization, Belizean Bus Association, is still dissatisfied with the number of runs being re-scheduled across both zones.  The changes have affected several businesses in the north, particularly Gilharry’s Bus, owned and operated by Froylan Gilharry for the past forty-two years.  Gilharry, represented by attorney Fred Lumor, today filed for a judicial review in the Supreme Court to challenge the new runs granted to him.

Fred Lumor, Attorney for Froylan Gilharry

“He has been running the northern route for over thirty-four years and last, I think last Thursday, on the [fourteenth] of June he received a call from Belmopan which asked him, a telephone call to take down the new routes that he will be allowed to run come Sunday the nineteenth of June.  So he took down those new routes and faxed them to my office.  When we compared them to the routes that he has been running previously, all the peak hours and the profitable routes have been taken away and he virtually has to close down his business.”

Froylan Gilharry, Owner, Gilharry’s Bus

Froylan Gilharry

“I have enough debts as I am right now with banks [and] people abroad and if I continue this it’s worst, maybe I might end up losing my house.  So I decided if it can’t fix well we don’t have much choice.”

Fred Lumor

“On Saturday, last Saturday, I think it was the nineteenth or so, new routes were posted on the walls of the bus terminal in Corozal Town which confirmed the routes which were given to him on the telephone.  I also need to mention that Mr. Gilharry has already applied for renewal of his existing bus licenses and has not heard anything from the Transport Board when all this situation has taken place.  So we have applied to the court that the court review the decision made not to renew his licenses and the new schedule be imposed on him.”

Froylan Gilharry

“They have reduced us to only eight runs and they have done it in such a way that it’s terrible, you know.  [They] have put us on eight o’clock in the morning, no I’m sorry, nine o‘clock, nine o’clock in the morning, nine-fifteen two buses and every fifteen minutes a bus.  By eleven o’clock we finish [our] run and only eight runs and that’s it we -can’t [do anymore].  We use to run three-forty five, four o‘clock, four-fifteen, four-thirty, five o‘clock, five-thirty, six o‘clock, seven o’clock.  So all those runs were taken away and it’s hard, you know.  We have a staff of over fifty-four people working.”

Fred Lumor

“The court has granted us leave to file the substantive claim for judicial review and has adjourned the matter until next Monday.  The application that the new decision or the new set of schedules be suspended pending the outcome of the hearing of the case.  The judge wants to hear the government’s side of the story on Monday the twenty-seventh of June before making a decision whether to grant a stay or suspend.”