FREEING UP THE PBR

Measures announced by Minister of Works and Transport, Franklin Khan, on Tuesday for the phased reduction of 12-seater maxi taxis on the Priority Bus Route (PBR), the planned encouraging of an increase in 25-seaters and slashing of private PBS passes by 300 will, in the medium and long-term, free up the route. The announcement was made by the Transport Minister at a breakfast meeting of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce. Meanwhile, the planned introduction in May by the Public Transport Service Corporation, as indicated by Mr Khan, of 12 articulated buses, each with a 110-passenger capacity, together with the arrival, within two to three months, of 25 regular units will provide PTSC services on and off the Priority  Bus Route with a not insubstantial increase in available seats without an appreciable rise in vehicles on the road.

Interestingly, Minister Khan omitted any reference on Tuesday to the introduction of a mini rail service along the Priority Bus Route and along another area of the old railway bed, this time from Curepe to San Fernando. Yet implied in his Chamber of Commerce addresss, however, was the intention by Government not merely to reduce the present number of 12-seater maxi taxis on the PBR but, eventually, to phase them out entirely from the route.

The Transport Minister’s plan to request Cabinet’s approval for PBR passes for 200 additional 25-seater maxi taxis, and to take to Cabinet as well a proposal for tax relief for 25-seater maxis, which would bring the price of these vehicles just incrementally higher than that of the 12-seaters, was a hint that the end of the 12-seaters on the PBR could not be too far off. The Transport Minister could not have made it plainer when he said: “Effective almost immediately we will no longer licence any new 12-seater maxis on the Priority Bus Route.” In addition, there would be the appeal to maxi operators of being able to transport twice the number of passengers for approximately the same vehicle cost.

It clearly had not been the original intention of Government to have a preponderance of 12-seater maxis on the PBR. As Khan pointed out, in 1995 of the 1,000 maxis operating on the route there were approximately 500 25-seaters and a similar number of 12-seaters. This meant that together, at any one given time, they were able to lift a maximum of 18,500 persons. Over the ten-year period the position had shifted dramatically and today 900 12-seaters as opposed to 100 25-seater maxis plied the route, providing maximum accommodation for 13,300 passengers, or a drop of 5,200 below that of 1995. The proposed 200 additional PBR passes for 25-seaters meant that 5,000 more passengers, or 18,300, would be able to access accommodation at any single point in time.

But this possible maximum will keep being reduced as the 12-passenger maxis are taken off the Priority Bus Route through attrition. Admittedly, Minister Khan has, however, offered that with the phased reduction of the 12-seaters their owners would be encouraged to convert to 25-seaters. The Minister, nonetheless, has been silent on plans to increase the proposed 200 additional route passes for 25-seater maxis. In turn, with the acquiring, by the Public Transport Service Corporation, of 12 articulated buses in May, and 25 other type units in March or April, and the possibility of an early introduction of a mini rail service on the Priority Bus Route, how far will the Ministry of Works and Transport be prepared to go in the issuing of additional passes for 25-seaters?