Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@guardian.co.tt

A long-over­looked In­ter-Amer­i­can De­vel­op­ment Bank (IDB) re­port rec­om­mend­ing an is­land -wide bus route net­work has re­turned to the spot­light as the Route 2 Maxi Taxi As­so­ci­a­tion re­news calls for ur­gent and strate­gic trans­port re­form.

Bren­ton Knights, pres­i­dent of the Route 2 Maxi Taxi As­so­ci­a­tion, said the IDB-backed re­port de­vel­oped in col­lab­o­ra­tion with his as­so­ci­a­tion presents a fea­si­ble and cost-ef­fec­tive al­ter­na­tive to the rapid rail sys­tem pre­vi­ous­ly pro­posed.

“The East-West Cor­ri­dor bus route is a suc­cess sto­ry. No one can dis­pute that,” said Knights. “But what we’ve ad­vo­cat­ed for years, and what the IDB re­port sup­ports, is a na­tion­al bus route net­work. Imag­ine the ben­e­fit of a ded­i­cat­ed cor­ri­dor from Ch­agua­nas to Port-of-Spain.”

His re­marks come in the wake of pub­lic con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing the al­lo­ca­tion of Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route (PBR) pass­es to pri­vate in­di­vid­u­als, rais­ing con­cerns about mis­use and mis­man­age­ment. While de­clin­ing to com­ment on the specifics of the cur­rent re­view be­ing un­der­tak­en by the min­istry, Knights em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of over­sight.

“The bus route is a spe­cial cor­ri­dor. Man­ag­ing it is the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the min­is­ter and the prime min­is­ter as head of the Cab­i­net,” he said. “Any mis­use or mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion must be ad­dressed and it’s with­in the Min­is­ter’s right to over­haul how these pass­es are is­sued.”

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­cent­ly con­firmed that over 600 PBR pass­es were is­sued to in­di­vid­u­als out­side of the es­tab­lished trans­port sec­tors, prompt­ing a full re­view.

“The sit­u­a­tion is un­ac­cept­able and a clear breach of pub­lic trust,” the Prime Min­is­ter said. “The min­istry has been in­struct­ed to re­voke all im­prop­er­ly is­sued pass­es and im­ple­ment a new sys­tem of ac­count­abil­i­ty and trans­paren­cy.”

Knights al­so sought to clar­i­fy mis­con­cep­tions about maxi taxi ac­cess to the PBR, stat­ing that max­is op­er­ate un­der a strict quo­ta sys­tem.

“There are 1,150 PBR pass­es for max­is. That’s it. It’s a capped, re­cy­cled sys­tem. When one pass be­comes avail­able, an­oth­er can be is­sued. We are not part of the ad hoc dis­tri­b­u­tion you’re hear­ing about with pri­vate ve­hi­cles,” he ex­plained.

He ad­dressed con­cerns about over­crowd­ing on the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route, a spe­cial road with lim­it­ed ca­pac­i­ty.

“The min­is­ter must en­sure the route is not over­crowd­ed,” Knights said. “That is why it’s im­por­tant to man­age the num­ber of ve­hi­cles al­lowed on the cor­ri­dor care­ful­ly. Over­crowd­ing af­fects the ef­fi­cien­cy and safe­ty of the route for every­one — dri­vers and pas­sen­gers alike.”

The as­so­ci­a­tion has ex­pressed cau­tious op­ti­mism that the re­moval of in­el­i­gi­ble ve­hi­cles from the route could im­prove con­di­tions for le­git­i­mate maxi op­er­a­tors, though Knights ac­knowl­edged the is­sue re­mains un­der min­is­te­r­i­al dis­cre­tion.

“We don’t know what cri­te­ria were used to is­sue those pass­es. But what we do know is that this re­newed at­ten­tion presents an op­por­tu­ni­ty not just to clean up the sys­tem but to think big­ger.”

He urged both cur­rent and fu­ture gov­ern­ments to re­vis­it the IDB’s rec­om­men­da­tion for a com­pre­hen­sive is­land wide bus route net­work. He said the plan was shelved in favour of the rapid rail project near­ly a decade ago.

“The IDB re­port was de­liv­ered to one of the pre­vi­ous gov­ern­ments dur­ing the rapid rail fren­zy but it pro­vid­ed a re­al­is­tic al­ter­na­tive,” Knights said. “And to­day it re­mains more rel­e­vant than ever.”

He paint­ed a stark pic­ture of what could hap­pen with­out strate­gic plan­ning.

“Just imag­ine wak­ing up one morn­ing and the Ari­ma to Port-of-Spain bus route is shut down. The chaos wouldn’t just hit the East-West Cor­ri­dor. It would rip­ple down to San Fer­nan­do. That’s how crit­i­cal this sys­tem is.”

While the con­tro­ver­sy over PBR pass dis­tri­b­u­tion con­tin­ues to brew, Knights is urg­ing the pub­lic and the Gov­ern­ment to stay fo­cused on the big­ger pic­ture, build­ing a re­li­able and ef­fi­cient pub­lic trans­porta­tion sys­tem that ben­e­fits all.

“This is a chance for trans­for­ma­tion,” he said. “Let’s not waste it.”