More than one million motor vehicles will overwhelm the nation's road infrastructure by the time the Keith Rowley administration realises its manifesto promise for implementation of a mass transit plan as part of the country's reformed transport system. That's the view of transport expert Rae Furlonge who is warning that based on the rate of new- and foreign-used car sales a crisis looms in the transport sector.
Speaking on a recent T&T Coalition of Services Industries (TTCSI) Services radio programme, Furlonge said: "We are not hearing rapid rail. Now, we are hearing mass transit, but I am telling you, I am creating the picture, that it was introduced before its time. I am not knocking anybody. I am simply saying there was never any justification for it then, because we never had an adopted national transportation plan. It was interfered with.
"Now it has to be done, and justification is required. We don't have the time to say why it was never justified and what were the issues raised in the absence of justification."He said a Transit Authority must be established to get the creation of a mass transit system right from the start.
"A Transit Authority is a regulatory body, it's like a Commission or Administration, to manage the affairs of the transit industry. You have the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), that's an authority," he explained.
Furlonge recalled disagreements with his former boss Sadiq Baksh at the Ministry of Works and Transport almost two decades ago on a similar issue, which caused him to become a transit policy campaigner when he left the public service.
"In 1996, I was a public servant and I was charged with the responsibility of managing an internal national transport policy. The Minister of Works appointed me and a team of 20 people–both private and public sector�and we finished the report in November 1996 and presented it.
"I presented it to one individual, the minister. What I will never do again is present something as an individual. I want a witness from now on, in everything I do. I presented the policy and it was rejected. Here's why it was rejected. Because, it said you (the government) had to manage the new business that had just started 20 years ago, called the imported used car industry. Not to stop it, but we needed to manage it," Furlonge recalled.
He continued: "The then minister looked at me and said 'You mad!? You know how much money government making from them cars?' That's one! Two: We (are) making cars cheap for the common man."My answer to him was simple. Minister but at what cost? Since then we have added 450,000 vehicles to this country in 20 years."