OBA: Why Isn’t New Bus Schedule In Place?

January 25, 2019

“When will Mr and Mrs Bermuda be able to enjoy reliable, consistent public transportation instead of the litany of broken promises by this Government,” Shadow Tourism and Transport Minister Leah Scott said.

Ms. Scott said, “There have been bus cancellations all during the month of January ranging from three routes being cancelled to up to 26 cancellations. A Canadian consultant has been paid copious amounts of money to come up with a workable roster that clearly isn’t working.

“What is really going on here? This is completely unacceptable – Mr and Mrs Bermuda, and the public in general, deserve so much better.

“On December 13, with much fanfare and ado, we were informed that a new winter bus schedule would take effect on January 7 this year. Chris Furbert hailed December 13 as a “great day”, as the attempts to complete a new bus schedule has spanned the PLP and OBA administrations and goes back to 2001.

“This new bus schedule would, purportedly, reduce the number of buses required on a daily basis to a sustainable level, which should have resulted in a more reliable public bus service.

“On January 4, 2019, the Department of Public Transportation announced that the winter schedule that was to be launched on January 7, 2019, would now be introduced on January 21, 2019.

“On January 11 it was reported that, although the effective date for the bus schedule would not be January 21, the 2019 winter bus schedule will remain unchanged and information regarding a new effective date would be forthcoming.

“It is now January 25, and the silence regarding what the effective date will be is louder than the posturing by the Minister, Richard Todd and Chris Furbert on January 13. I’d say they were making much ado about nothing!

“If Minister DeSilva believes that the new bus schedule could be sustained with the current fleet of buses, and that this new schedule is the best way to ensure an efficient and reliable public transportation service, why isn’t it in place?

“When will Mr and Mrs Bermuda be able to enjoy reliable, consistent public transportation instead of the litany of broken promises by this Government?”

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Comments (42)

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  1. vote no more says:

    Get ready OBA, here come the blame game from great Zaney..

    • HELLO OBAERS says:

      SAME REASON OBA/UBP DID NOT HAVE IT IN PLACE>

      STOP WITH THE POLITICAL GAMESMANSHIP OBA< YOU KNOW THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE WAS<

      INSTEAD OF MAKING NOISE OVER NOTHING, COME UP WITH SOLUTIONS,,,,,BUT GUESS THATS TOO HARD FOR YOU TO DO.

      • Ringmaster says:

        The PLP Minister of Transport made a big play on how a new schedule has been agreed. Since then it has been delay after delay and continued cancellations. Only the PLP have the influence to get this done and seemingly have failed, the OBA had no chance against the BIU. Where are the Peoples Campaign on this? Why aren’t they marching as it would be their supporters most impacted? Rather like the campaign against the airport when people got peppered sprayed. Why weren’t they at the airport the other day? Just shows how they were shamelessly used for political purposes.

  2. DeOnion says:

    The Minister of Transport is too busy congratulating himself on the new airport to be bothered with minor issues like this ….

    • rumsoak says:

      Are you talking about the same airport we had marches against by the PLP?
      Now they are taking credit . Jokers

      • Onion Juice says:

        $30 Million a year for 30 years that CCC will be getting, no wonder they made that deal at 5:00 in de morning.

        • wahoo says:

          Right we should have raised taxes and slashed the civil service and paid for it ourselves.

          • Onion Juice says:

            Well SpongeBob did say it aint gonna cost us nothing.
            Sounds like Mexico is gonna pay for the wall.
            LMAO

  3. politricks says:

    17 years and $1.7mn to redo a bus schedule for a 21 square mile island. And yet some wonder why people have little faith in the Government to get anything done with any form of efficiency.

    • Whistling Frog says:

      Why are the OBA concerned about such petty matters?

      Pressure the government about why are these diseases coming into the country.
      Or why is rotten and outdated food being sold in stores at full prices.
      How are guns getting into the country?
      Why is local grown produce more expensive than produce shipped?
      Why do self-employed persons who work from their private vehicles pay no Taxes?
      Why do cleaners make less than $10.00 per Hr.?
      Why does it take 6 government workers to stand and watch one man use a shovel?

  4. dondererd says:

    Maybe instead of ripping the BTA car apart, Zane has ripped a few buses apart instead?

  5. Mixitup says:

    You mean The same group that decided not to invest money in public transport, did not take on the task of formatting a new schedule is now pressed for urgency on public transport? And the gall to say Mr & Ms Bermuda deserve better? So when you were in charge of running the country, did Mr & Ms Bermuda not deserve better then? Sorry, dumb question.

    • sandgrownan says:

      16/20. 16 of 20 years the PLP have had. Look where we are.

      Abject failures. By any measure, failures.

      • Onion Juice says:

        $77 Million for a Billionaire sailboat race.

        • Come Correct says:

          Came in under budget and returned over 300m. You praise failures and condemn success.

          • Time Shall Tell says:

            No, it didn’t return 300m, it was estimated that it has the potential to. Don’t fall for the sales pitch, if we really made that much in return then “Show me the money”.

            • Come Correct says:

              Yes, it did. There was an entire report done on it. That’s why you all have to lie about it.

        • Sandgrownan says:

          Idiot

        • Chauncey says:

          Only 77 million? WOW! What a saving. All of the PLP have been saying that ‘only boat race’ was 120 million.

          Hmmm 77 million for a race but generated much more. PLP have given 1/50th of that to DrEB for NOTHING!!!!!!

    • dondererd says:

      PLP’s had 18 months to fix this – and in that time, what have they done except to introduce even more taxes! And remember, it was just a few weeks ago that Zaney was backslapping himself and anyone nearby saying the new schedule had been sorted!

    • question says:

      The 4 buses that landed here with great backslapping and fanfare at the beginning of 2018 are still not on the road. Why is that?

    • red rose says:

      The OBA was left to try and stop the budget bleeding – to cut the enormous deficit left by the PLP. Without that deficit perhaps investments could have been made!
      And don’t forget which party has been in power for 16 of the last 20 years – no party in one term could fix the problems left over from the disastrous PLP years.

    • red rose says:

      And don’t forget these:
      * the $89 million new court and police complex in Hamilton, a contract issued in 2008 which cost $17 million more than its original $72 million budget
      * The 2007 contract for Heritage Wharf at Dockyard, which cost $60 million — $21 million more than the estimated $39 million.
      * The upgrading at Port Royal Golf Course, which cost $25.5 million, some $17.8 million over its 2007 $7.2 million budget.
      * the 2001 contract to build and run the three TCD emissions testing stations, which came in more than $9.9 million over budget at $15.2 million

      • Trump supporter says:

        Don’t forget 1.2 mill to Mr brown.

        • HELLO OBAERS says:

          THANK GOD I CAN SEE WHAT PLP SPENT MONEY ON, CAPTIAL PROJECT….buT CAN NOT SEE NOTHING FROM THE OBA, EXCEPT THE RICH MAN SAIL BOAT WHICH LEFT US STILL PAYING A HUGE BILL EACH MONTH, AND THE LAND LIES IDLE…NOTHING UP THERE NOW….GET OVER IT OBAERS.

      • question says:

        And the $24m swimming pool. Put out to tender and originally $8m. Came in at 3x estimate and two years late.

        • Ringmaster says:

          Don’t forget Grand Atlantic. Cost $49m and sold off for a fraction of the price and people are still wanting affordable housing. Plus $40m to Global Hue for what return?

    • Anon Ymous says:

      ….and only one of the two mentioned parties would get anything near support from the unions, for any chance of getting it done – can you guess which one?

  6. 2 Bermudas says:

    Busses??? Will be trash ever get picked up twice a week again?!?! What a difference a gov’t makes because there would have probably been 10 marches by now if it were the OBA!!! Titty milk is real!!!

  7. somuchless says:

    It’s sad but it seems like the biu is milking the gov as much as they can for time to continue to pay the drivers overtime and yada yada yada.

    Crap service standing at a bus stop not even knowing if a bus will show up or not.

  8. watching says:

    The OBA did nothing in 5 years to fix this issue. Ms. Scott is playing politics which is unfortunate as she always claims to be above the fray. Yet she knows the difficulty in getting the schedule approved and in place. If it were as simple as she is making it out to be, it would have been done.

    • Double S says:

      It’s pathetic that it takes 17 years and almost 2 million dollars to devise a news bus schedule for an island of 60,000. Even a zealot such as yourself has to admit that. Classic case of the tail (BIU) wagging the dog.

  9. Rocky5 says:

    Does anyone really think PLP cares a rats @rse about Bermudians!! All PLP wanted from Bermudians was their votes so PLP could get fingers back in almost empty cookie jar!

  10. Coffee says:

    I did some digging around and found this . The OBA hired a bus builder a few years back . Long story short , he ripped Bermuda off . The OBA buried the story. The OBA remainders all know this .

  11. Are You Kidding Me says:

    So you have this person here for the last 17 years making 100,000+ dollars to come with a roster. And it still isn’t sorted out. What in the world of public purse is going on here? SMH?

  12. Freddy says:

    They cant fix anything only spend spend spend ya money

  13. Let’s Go Bermuda says:

    Let’s ago Bermuda! Sell all the public buses, and put each route out to tender..bus schedule could be done with all the 15 passenger vans that there are all on island!! Imagine the efficiency of service and savings to our pockets…please consider it!!

    • HELLO OBAERS says:

      pRIVATIZATION DOES NOT SOLVE IT EITHER, FOLKS CAN STILL BE APART OF A UNION, AND THEY ALSO HAVE RIGHTS…SO GET OVER IT.

      • Question says:

        But a private company wouldn’t be cancelling dozens of buses a week. But you live with sh it service because it’s the PLP and you frankly fully expect and are content with sh it service. We have a crap public transport system because the unions and the PLP don’t care about changing it.

  14. Warrior says:

    union meets with PTB and Minister of much to do about nothing and Premier meets with Mr Tweed and Mr Gang who? Nothing being done and nothing going to get done.
    PLP looking to be like Donald Trump taxing the supposed middle class to cover their overspending of money that should have been placed where desperately needed.
    Soon we will have many students graduating from High School looking for jobs, going abroad to return with certificates and told sorry, you have no experience. What happened to training on the job? Construction, taxi’s, hospital (Nurses Assistants…lots of foreigners and very few locals),too many mini buses, unemployment, unemployment, unemployment…. New faces daily in St. David’s in emergency housing… not good not good at all.
    Was in St George’s last week, Boyles having a sale, Frangipani only open on Saturdays and other stores either closed until Feb/March, or open later in the day or only on weekends. The Town looks so dismal.

  15. Some beach ...some where... says:

    Hopeless