By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE government is “hoping” to roll out a “prototype” for a unified busing system by the end of the year, a Cabinet minister said yesterday, adding that this is the furthest the government has got in its decade-long quest for jitney industry reform.

Transport and Aviation Minister Glenys Hanna Martin told reporters yesterday that the government’s appointed steering committee for jitney/bus industry reform, comprised of bus owners, officials from both her ministry and the Ministry of Finance, have agreed to proceed with rolling out a “pilot project” which will be the “prototype of a public transport system” by early December.

She said that the pilot project will “have all of the features or as many of the features” as the government would like it to have, including schedules, fare boxes, established signage for bus stops, and uniformed, salaried bus drivers.

Mrs Hanna Martin said the government will be assisted in its tentative December roll out by a Canadian consultant, whom she said will also “do all that is necessary legally, structurally” and otherwise to “lead to a universal rollout throughout New Providence” in parallel to the pilot project.

Mrs Hanna Martin also announced that the government now has a completed draft of the revised Road Traffic Act, which has had very few changes since 1958.

The proposed unification of the public bus system is part of the New Providence Road Improvement Programme (NPRIP), funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which also involved the upgrading of New Providence’s road network.

The project, which is being financed by $500,000 from the IDB, is an attempt to encourage jitney operators and franchise holders to take the next step towards reform, and overcome what appears to be entrenched stakeholder resistance.

However, an IDB paper, obtained by Tribune Business earlier this year, revealed that little progress towards practical jitney/bus industry reform has been made despite numerous reports and studies being presented to the government, some of which date back to 1992.

“The agreement is that we are going to proceed with a pilot project which will be the prototype of a public transport system and will have all of the features or as many of the features as we would like it to have, including schedules, employees of bus drivers, not people hustling for a dollar, also established signage for bus stops, and also fare boxes and things of that nature,” Mrs Hanna Martin said of the steering committee’s discussions.

“Pursuant to that we engaged through the IDB a grant, and a consultant out of Canada was engaged, he’s been here several times. I met with him myself on Monday. And we’re hoping in early December to begin the roll out of a new prototype for transport. He has two roles. That’s one. His second role is on a parallel basis to do all that is necessary legally, structurally, etc, along with out people in his consultancy role to lead to a universal rollout throughout New Providence.”

She added: “So this is the furthest it has ever gotten. Some people - I’m being criticised because we haven’t done it, but this is the first time we have gotten this far.”

Mrs Hanna Martin also said that the government now has a completed draft of the decades old Road Traffic Act. In 2014, it was reported that Canadian Neville Weeks, an independent transportation consultant, had been chosen to spearhead the revision of the Road Traffic Act, with a view to modernising the country’s transportation system.

“A consultant draftsman was brought in by the Office of the Attorney General, primarily to help us with this, and this is the first time in 60 years that we have a comprehensive legislative, modern umbrella for road traffic, including public transport, offences, etc, the entire spectrum,” she said.