And right now, commuters might be feeling a little betrayed. After all, Minister of Transport Dr Louis Zabaneh had pledged that they weren't going to raise bus fares. But in an interview this afternoon in Punta Gorda Town, he pointed out that it's only the independent bus companies that will see the increase; the National Bus Company's prices remain the same. And according to Zabaneh, the decision to allow the price hike - and the method applied to do it - was for the benefit of the commuters. Here's how he explained it.
Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport
"We did the exercise scientifically, prior to this exercise rates were haphazardly adjusted in the past. Now we're using a formula which shows that indeed the cost of operating from Punta Gorda all the way to Belize City, that's the longest route we have in the country, and so applying that, that's the price that came out. Now I will be able to share with you that the national bus company which serves 95% of the southern corridor, 85% of the western corridor and only 20% of the northern corridor has put out a press release where rates will not be increase by the national bus company at this time. However if there are increasing pressures from increasing fuel prices then the company may have to do so but we'll be doing so in a measured way with the best interest of commuters in those decisions."
"We never promised that we wouldn't increase the rates. What we said was that our position has always been that we look out for the best interest of commuters and that the rationale for the national bus company is that when you bring smaller operators into a larger company a private company like what national bus company is now that you're able to get economies of scale, you're able to reduce the cost, the medium term plans for national bus company are to move to electric buses and the cost of electricity compared to diesel is only about 25% so that's the argument of the creation of the national bus company so that you can mitigate issues like surprises in increases in world fuel prices. So that indeed is what it is that we're working on with the further development of the NBC."
"What happened with national bus company is that there has to transition period. When you buy electric buses you don't have 100 buses lined up that you can pick up and just bring over all the way from the producing counties and land them here on day one. You have to put in your specifications, it takes 3 to 5 months to finish building a bus from scratch, so all of those things are in play right now and we're estimating our first buses to arrive towards September of this year."
