sto­ries by RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan says re­lief for the traf­fic woes be­ing ex­pe­ri­enced around the coun­try is on the way with 12 traf­fic al­le­vi­a­tion projects slat­ed for this year.

A study done by the Eco­nom­ic Com­mis­sion for Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean (ECLAC) found that con­ges­tion on the road­way is cost­ing T&T over $2 bil­lion an­nu­al­ly.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Sinanan said com­muters on the north/south route face hours of traf­fic, af­fect­ing valu­able pro­duc­tive time.
It’s why, he said an ex­tra lane was now be­ing con­struct­ed along the Solomon Ho­choy High­way from Ch­agua­nas to San Fer­nan­do.

The min­is­ter said they al­so hoped to fur­ther re­duce the south/north traf­fic con­ges­tion by con­sid­er­ing a park-and-ride sys­tem at the Bri­an Lara Sta­di­um. This ini­tia­tive would al­low com­muters to park their cars and take a bus to Port-of-Spain, al­le­vi­at­ing con­ges­tion in San Fer­nan­do.

Sinanan al­so re­vealed on­go­ing projects, in­clud­ing the con­struc­tion of round­abouts in Ch­agua­nas, by­pass roads to Diego Mar­tin, bridge widen­ing and an ad­di­tion­al lane in Mar­aval, a Ring Road around San­gre Grande, tech­nol­o­gy for re­verse lanes, and the over­haul­ing of the Pub­lic Trans­port Ser­vice Cor­po­ra­tion (PTSC).

“We are look­ing at mak­ing PTSC the num­ber one mode of pub­lic trans­porta­tion and we are re-en­gi­neer­ing the en­tire fleet at PTSC. Right now PTSC is un­der­go­ing some ma­jor changes us­ing tech­nol­o­gy to have a more di­rect link with com­muters,” Sinanan ex­plained.

“We want PTSC to get to the point where it is re­li­able, safe and ef­fi­cient,” he added.

Re­gard­ing the Wa­ter Taxi ser­vice, the min­is­ter said it was un­der­utilised out­side peak hours.

“We were ex­plor­ing ex­tend­ing the wa­ter taxi to Point Fortin but be­cause of the new high­way it isn’t nec­es­sary to do that now,” he said.

He said the wa­ter taxi ser­vice was not a so­lu­tion to traf­fic con­ges­tion from north to south Trinidad. The ser­vice was launched in De­cem­ber 2008 and was tout­ed as a way to re­duce road con­ges­tion by NID­CO. Then Works and Trans­port min­is­ter Colm Im­bert said in 2008 that as many as 10,000 peo­ple would have been fa­cil­i­tat­ed dai­ly when the wa­ter taxi ser­vice be­gan to op­er­ate at its full com­ple­ment of eight.

Sinanan said there are usu­al­ly three wa­ter taxis op­er­at­ing while the fourth is usu­al­ly on dry dock.
How­ev­er, de­spite the con­cern about un­der­util­i­sa­tion, some pas­sen­gers who use the wa­ter taxi ser­vice said they con­sid­ered it the safest and most com­fort­able mode of trans­porta­tion.

Pas­sen­ger Car­olyn King Hen­ry ex­plained: “I think more peo­ple should use it but some peo­ple are re­luc­tant be­cause they don’t know where to park their cars if they are tak­ing the wa­ter taxi.”

King said the last time she drove to Port-of-Spain she spent five hours in traf­fic both ways.
“I feel right now the wa­ter taxi is in de­mand be­cause some­times peo­ple get left back,” she said.

An­oth­er pas­sen­ger, Tyrese Thomp­son, praised the wa­ter taxi’s con­ve­nience and com­fort.
“Some­times it’s so hard to get a PTSC bus or even a taxi in Port-of-Spain. The wa­ter taxi is con­ve­nient and com­fort­able as well too,” he said.

Can­dace Alexan­der said since high­way works be­gan more peo­ple were us­ing it.

“The traf­fic on the high­way is re­al­ly bad and tak­ing the wa­ter taxi is very con­ve­nient be­cause you know be­fore­hand when the wa­ter taxi will sail,” she said.

Pas­sen­ger An­nette Alexan­der said she en­joys the sea am­bi­ence rather than the traf­fic on land.

“I pre­fer to spend 45 min­utes on the sea than five hours of traf­fic on the road. More peo­ple should use the wa­ter taxi. It is the best way to trav­el,” she de­clared.