The Ministry of Transport will soon be renovating the capital city’s major transport hub, City Gate, as well as increasing the Public Transport Service’s bus fleet and upgrading the ferries to Tobago. Transport Minister Stephen Cadiz made this known following the distribution of chassis to five steelbands, yesterday, at the Public Transport Service Commission’s (PTSC) offices at City Gate. The chassis will allow the steelbands to move around their instruments on the road.
“Right now we have challenges with the bus fleet. The bus fleet is aging. The average life of a commercial commuter bus is between seven years to ten years and then you have to start making considerations as to whether you are going to change it. “Our buses, the average life of the total fleet is upwards of 12 years, so we are way over. We have started the replacements,” Cadiz said.
He said he was aware of commuters’ complaints regarding late buses and poor service but the ministry was working very hard to alleviate the problems. “We have technicians coming in from the various manufacturers to work with our local technicians to speed up the repairs.” He said in the next few weeks, commuters would see a major improvement in the level of service offered by the PTSC.
He said the new buses would run on compressed natural gas (CNG), which was a cheaper fuel and would save the Government money. “We want to see at one point that the only vehicles allowed on the bus route would be CNG-fuelled or differently-fuelled vehicles.” Cadiz said the Ministry of Transport would also soon have to look at replacing the fast ferries to Tobago as they too had “come of age.” He said changing the type of fuel used by the ferries could save the Government as much as $100 million a year.
City Gate had been kept very well over the decades, he added, but it was due for renovations. He said these renovations would be done over time as the Government was being careful about spending, and renovations of historical buildings were usually expensive to carry out. Cadiz said commuters should not be affected by the renovations as they would be done incrementally on individual sections of the building.
“It is a working building. We are not closing down anything. The building is fully functional.” He said the ministry was still working with planners to determine the cost of renovations. He also gave assurances that the PTSC wouldn’t increase fares in the near future.