Friday, March 29, 2024

Transport Board workers: Time to tell the truth

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Striking workers of the Transport Board say that it is time for the public to be told the truth about the state of affairs at the state-owned bus company.

Speaking to the media this morning at Weymouth where the protesting workers had gathered, Deputy General Secretary of the Barbados Workers Union Dwaine Paul said Board policy was hampering the delivery of service.

He charged that the Board was prioritising unprofitable routes and unpaid services such as free bus service for school children while profitable routes were saturated with privately-owned public service vehicles (PSVs).

“No-one is saying that you all are being given instructions to serve only certain routes at the expense of others. We cannot continue to have priority routes that are not even profit-making routes but they are being prioritised at the disadvantage of the public who then turn around after waiting three and four hours and make you the target of their vexation,” Paul declared to workers this morning.

Workers charge that this is compounded by the poor state of the Transport Board’s fleet of buses. On Friday, the WEEKEND NATION reported that less than half of the Board’s buses were in a state to go on the road on any given day.

To hearty applause from workers, Paul asserted that the efforts to “restore and refurbish buses will not give the results they want because a lot of the buses need to be retired and replaced.”

“If you are serious about serving the public then you should talk about replacing the fleet. In the last ten years I can’t say that the Transport Board has bought a bus!” exclaimed Paul. (AL-F)

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