The barrage of complaints about the Transport Board service in some rural parishes decreased significantly this past week.
Chief Operations Officer at the Transport Board Lynda Holder gave that assessment on Friday after she reported that they deployed additional services to commuters in St Andrew and St Joseph who were experiencing challenges earlier this month.
“We put in additional services to pick up the rest of the commuters in the areas that were complaining that they weren’t getting an early morning bus or that even when they got the bus, it was full.
“For the Alleyne School, we’ve added two additional services on mornings, that will pick up those children starting from the Globe and head to the St George area. We also met with Alleyne School principal and parents two days ago and they confirmed that they saw some improvements. It is not going to be perfect because we have finite resources and school children will always be priority,” Holder said.
She said they also noted improvements in transporting students from Deighton Griffith Secondary and The Lodge School to and from school.
She made those comments at the Barbados Water Authority in the Pine, St Michael after the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between various stakeholders in the transportation sector.
Since the full resumption of face-to-face instruction in September, several residents in St Andrew, particularly those who relied on the Shorey Village bus complained about their public transportation issues.
“A lot of the challenges that the regular commuters are experiencing came about because we went back to face-to-face school full time and it is going to take time for us to get our systems working efficiently because the children are coming, and in some instances, for the first time.
“Previously we knew where our catchment areas were and we were able to cover those for the schools but we are now working through that,” she said.
She said they would continue to monitor the situation.
“In monitoring it this week, we have still received one or two complaints but not what was occurring in the previous week. However, we will continue to work on it and to try our very best to make sure we address the challenges brought up,” she added. (TG)
