In July last year, two e-buses were launched on the streets of Belize City. And now, e-buses are hitting the highway. On Monday in Belmopan a soft launch was held for the inter district electric buses, which you will now be seeing on the George Price Highway, from Belize City to Benque Viejo and back.
At the launch, the need for reliable and affordable public transportation was emphasized. Here is a snippet of the speeches.
Dr. Erja Askola, Ambassador to the European Union
"I came to Belize in May and I had the opportunity to test one of your buses already and that was a very interesting ride because it was quiet, it was silent, it was clean and it appeared to be also very much afforadable. And I will say that public transport, well functioning, clean, and affordable public
transport is in the DNA of the European Union and Europeans itself and when I travel outside of Europe it's one of the things I miss the most, the public transport. And I'm very happy to see this development is taking place here in Belize because it's also very important for tourism."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"Over a year ago Belize City had the honor of receiving the first two intra city electric buses under this e-mobility pilot project. Since then, through our e-ride service we have proudly carried more than 200,000 passengers and that is up to date figures. The feedback has been nothing short of amazing. our residents have come to rely on these buses and they deserve nothing less than reliable, comfortable, and modern public transportation options."
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport
"I'm grateful that we have now worked together with so many of the bus operators and we're now converging more and more, in fact, a meeting just today informed us that there may be another four of the bus operators who may be willing to come onboard with the project and that would take us to 22 out of 31 bus operators so I think that's a great thing."
"Notice that we're not not nationalizing the bus sector, we're asking everybody to come together and reason together and see the benefits that this would bring to us as the bus sector but especially to the commuters, the hardworking people who use the bus service everyday."
The buses leave Benque at 5:15 in the morning and 2:30 in the evening. They leave Belize City at 6:30 and 9:00 in the morning. Buses servicing the north will be coming soon.
