It’s been a long and stony silence from the Novelo’s group. They haven’t been on air complaining about the Department of Transport or anything else for months! That must be a record because they are known to rock a microphone! But don’t mistake that silence for contentment; like we said: it is a stony silence: “dey noh happy!” But what can they do. Public sympathy is very low, and the Minister of Transport could care less about them. The Novelo’s say they’ve downsized and are taking their lumps, waiting in the wings if they are needed and if not, they will keep a low profile.
Well, reasonably low…I mean, after all, they are the Novelo’s! And what would life be without a few fights and frontal assaults? So there they were today, again bucking the Department of Transport. The issue is, Novelo’s line called National Transport have the license to run busses east to west, Belize City from 5 am to noon. That’s called a block. The rule as it was clearly explained to the press was – once a bus operator is given a block – he can operate as many busses as he wishes to in that block because he’s only competing with himself.
So National started running a premier service on Monday, air condition, bucket seats, and bathroom on board, real nice. But not so for the Department of Transport which stepped in and put an end to it saying it requires special approval. That led to a little showdown today and we were there at 6:50 am.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
This is what we found just before 7:00 this morning. This National Transport bus was partially blocking the street, barred from entering the Bus Terminal Compound on West Collet Canal. It’s a premier service, an express bus from Belize to Benque; it falls within the authorized bloc for National but it’s been banned by the Ministry of Transport.
Phillip Jones, Nat’l Transport
“The Commissioner of Transport Miss Salduvar Mortis sent me an email and called me saying that this run is illegal, they have not issued or informed
us or authorized us to run the service.”
So the bus was not allowed in; it waited at the gate for 15 minutes and at 7:00 it rolled out – just a few passengers were on board because they usually get on inside the terminal where it was made clear.
Phillip Jones,
“The terminal personnel, they have informed, I was in there, and they were informing the customer that there would be no seven o’clock this morning because the Transport is not allowing that bus to continue. So you notice we picked up our one or two loyalists out here but the other customers that they mentioned that there would be no seven o’clock today, they probably caught a economy bus or a regular bus.”
That’s the regular National bus rolling out of the terminal. And while that went to Benque Viejo, the express didn’t make it far. We found it at the police checkpoint at mile three – it had been stopped at the order of the Ministry of Transport. The few commuters who were on the bus were stranded and had to catch another bus, in this case, James.
Commuter,
“They stopped the bus and I think there is no permit or something like that.”
Jules Vasquez,
And what’s your feeling about it?
Commuter,
“My feeling is I am just getting inconvenienced but I want to catch this bus so…you know.”
So they took the ride, minutes the A/C – and the express bus was left empty and under police guard – it was later taken by police escort back to the National parking area.
Phillip Jones,
“I just think it is ridiculous. We are not competing with anyone, we are just providing a necessary service which is comfortable and reliable and you know right now it is some hard times and everyone wants to reach to work on time and that particular seven o’clock bus is a peak hour. You have workers going home to eight miles or work at Old Belize, the wine brewery, Hattieville etc. and this alleviates the congestion on the seven o’clock bus and they have informed and told us that we can go ahead and put as much bus as possible as long as we are not infringing or competing with anyone else. That was a seven o’clock bus express and we had our regular seven o’clock. There is no one else going with us. Right now it’s blatant to see that, it is public persecution basically.”
Persecution or not on this morning, these stranded passengers are the ones who took the brunt of this power struggle.
The Commissioner of Transport did not return our calls. National will not run the Premier service tomorrow, but we get the sense, they’ll keep trying.
