Minister of Transport and Local Government, Frankie Campbell said that the ministry is still awaiting the audit of plates for the bus system.
The plate audit will determine what is there and what flexibility exists.
Speaking with reporters yesterday, Mr. Campbell said the Ministry of Transport remains concerned with how the public feels about the busing system.
“The ministry, the minister remains concerned about the public’s concern safety, reliability, efficiency, issues,” Mr. Campbell said.
With respect to decisions to be made when it comes to the bus system, Mr. Campbell said that no decisions would be made unless all concerned were involved.
“The ministry assures drivers and all other stakeholders that any decision to be made will involve them,” he said.
As to the when the unified busing system would begin, Mr. Campbell said that project was turned over to a specially formed committee.
“It’s still waiting to be activated, the pilot project is still waiting to be activated, there’s been no considerable move, but it’s out of the hands of the minister.
“There is a committee that the minister met in place and the committee has the support of the minister, but the committee is ultimately responsible for activating,” Mr. Campbell stated.
When asked if there was a date for activation, Mr. Campbell responded by saying that he did not want to put a time to it in the event that the pilot project is not activated within that time frame.
“I have this habit of not wanting to give dates to have people, only to come back and say the minister’s date has come and gone and it didn’t happen,” Mr. Campbell said.
During his contribution to the Budget debate in May, Mr. Campbell said that the ministry, working along with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) would be financing the unified busing system project,and would “soon engage” in discussions with a company to be identified and selected to move the project forward.
In June of this year, Mr. Campbell confirmed that three companies responded to a Request For Proposals (RFP) to manage the pilot project for a unified busing system in New Providence.
