Transport Board: Maintenance problems will be addressed
Tue, 04/12/2016 - 12:00am
By Patricia Thangaraj
The issue of Transport Board buses emitting a dark coloured smoke that is causing concern among Barbadians from both a health and environmental standpoint is something that the Board is working on addressing.
Speaking to the media after the ‘Transport Authority Service Integration (TASI) of Public Transport in Barbados Community Presentation’ on Saturday evening at the St. David’s Anglican Church, Manager of Marketing and Corporate Communications at the Transport Board, Lynda Holder, stated that the issue has been brought to their attention and is a matter that the Board is seriously looking at how it can be resolved.
“The issue as it relates to buses that appear to be kicking off a black smoke or dark coloured smoke when you are travelling is something that has been brought to our attention and we have a fog insurance department that is working arduously to correct all of these continuous maintenance issues,” it was explained.
The Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager stressed that the general public needs to understand that the buses they have are old, with the newer ones being at least ten years old. Bearing this in mind, they have started an initiative where they would be pulling the buses off the roads periodically to work on maintenance issues.
“As you would appreciate, our younger buses are ten years old, and we have started a programme where we are pulling out buses periodically and no longer waiting for the service date, which is what we previously did. By pulling out buses periodically and working on getting through any issues that have been reported to us, any issues that we believe need have developed, they can resolve the issues.
“However, is the length of time that these buses spend on the roads, and of course, you cannot have a situation where you pull all of the buses off the roads at the same time. Therefore, the Board would be taking it step by step as they seek to address all of the issues that they have with the buses.
“It is something that persons don’t honestly understand, but Transport Board (buses) are on the road on average 22 hours a day, so when we do pull out buses, sometimes it takes us a little bit longer to address certain challenges, and if we pull out all of the buses to do that, (other) areas would suffer. So we are trying to do a holistic approach to it, where we are planning what we would do and what we would not do, and we would address all of those issues as they appear.”