By NATARIO McKENZIE


Tribune Business Reporter


nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

New Providence’s public transport system was yesterday described as a “major failing”, with the Government advancing its efforts to determine the collective worth of all jitney franchises and update plans for a unified busing system.

Glenys Hanna-Martin, minister of transport and aviation, in an interview with Tribune Business said the new bus system would call for “comprehensive coverage”.

“You have hundreds of individual owners running a singular transportation system that the Road Traffic Department oversees by assigning routes, and by supervising and trying to bring order to,” Mrs Hanna-Martin said.

“These owners are competing against each other and it creates an inherently negative environment. This is what we have been battling with all along. I had initiated this originally because it was pursuant to the IDB road redevelopment project. It was sort of abandoned under the prior administration. They picked it up again around 2010-2011, and we have carried on from there,” 
 As to where plans to unify the bus system are presently, she said: “In terms of where we are now, we have appointed a committee which we have called a steering committee, and which comprises the owners who have been selected or elected from the industry, along with other government stakeholders - the Ministry of Finance, the Road Traffic Department as well as the Ministry of Transport and Aviation - and we have been looking at a lot of things.

“Right now we are seeking to update a business plan that was done several years ago. Pursuant to that they have been trying to put a value on the industry.”
 Mrs Hanna-Martin further said: “In the last several weeks the industry stakeholders have been working with the Government in speaking with the bus owners to try and get an idea as to what is the value of the industry.

“That’s a critical component when you start getting on to the business plan. The work is currently underway. Thereafter we have to agree a model. It’s looking like a public-private sector partnership where the state will be the majority shareholder for the time being. That’s where we are now.”
 A 2005 unification plan called for the creation of a single bus company, in which franchise holders and owner/operators will be given shares.

The plan also spoke to raising equity to capitalise the unified company through an initial public offering (IPO), and recommended that the Government be given a 20-30 per cent equity stake “at no cost” to it and the taxpayer. The 790 franchises issued in 2005 were then valued at a total $12.3 million.
 Mrs Hanna-Martin said that while the unification of the bus/jitney system was possible, it was a difficult undertaking. “I think that if we keep full speed ahead that we will see, at the end of the day, a comprehensive, rational transport system. I believe it will make a big different in the quality of life in our country,” she said.
 “I have not heard of any other country that has a similar system with 200-300 individual owners competing for a route. There are some bus owners who are assigned routes and, because they don’t find it profitable, abandon it and you end up converging on one route.

“Then you have the road situation which has caused some confusion. We have areas of New Providence now which are not covered by public transport. In terms of our national development, that’s a major failing. I have to confess to that. Out of this system we have to ensure comprehensive coverage. New housing developments have no bus coverage. They will drop you so far and you are on your own. Public transport is a critical component of social life and ours is challenged.”