New roads to cut bus bill

A multimillion-dollar national road repair programme should help the Barbados Transport Board reduce its high bus maintenance bill but the agency is also looking to make more money to fill a hole created by Government’s decision to cut its allocation by $15 million.
Minister of Transport and Works Michael Lashley made the disclosures yesterday during the Transport Board’s 58th anniversary church service, held at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Ruby, St Philip.
In a matter of months, the ministry will embark on an aggressive programme of repairing roads which are so bad they are having a serious impact on the board’s buses, Lashley said.
The minister said the Transport Board had an “issue with maintenance” and “we have announced a $130 million road package because the condition of the road will impact on the buses”.
“If we have good roads, we wouldn’t have to spend a lot of money on maintaining the buses,” he pointed out. (AH)