BUS ROUTE REFORM USING MULTIPLE FRANCHISES IN BELIZE DEBATE

THE DEBATE ON BUS REFORM IN BELIZE

A useful website for when the UNIFIED THIRD PARTIES WIN THE NEXT ELECTION

http://www.ppiaf.org/ppiaf/sites/ppiaf.org/files/documents/toolkits/UrbanBusToolkit/assets/home.html

Obviously it won´t get done by the UDP in power? Certainly, the Transportation Minister and his cronies in the UDP CABINET have failed, or plain refused to see buses serve the WESTERN BORDER IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS TRANSIT BUILDINGS. 2 1-2 MILES FROM THE NEAREST BUS STOP IN BENQUE VIEJO TOWN. A long walk in the hot sun, when carrying luggage. We can only look to a new political group to form the next, new government.
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(Ongoing debate on the Belize Culture listserve) Nov. 20, 2011

Yes, we have to fix the political environment before we can fix the regulatory process.

MEL

From: Ray Auxillou
To: "bz-culture@psg.com"
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2011 4:50 AM
Subject: Re: Bz-Culture: bus system debate.

Not quite true! Due to the hazards of periodic disruption of the country, due to Hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, it is better to have multiple bus services. This diversification allows bus service to continue during times of economic disruption. With a multitude of one bus owners in the business, somebody always can fill a hole that occurs. If you allow one company, as we learned by NOVELOS to dominate the bus market, when a hurricane disaster occurs, the bus transportation industry collapses. The single owner, or small company bus lines, provide perhaps not the best situation, but consolidation would not serve the country well, during times of disaster.
It´s a trade off, between quality of service and availability, when the country is in turmoil due to climate hazards. In the long haul the current setup works fairly well. The transportation Minister could though, set rules for replacement buses to be modern. Unfortunately as you say, it is politicized and stealing bus routes and bribes seemingly are a major part of the local bus scene.

From: MEL
To: tc vernon ; "mtoy@destinationsbelize.com"
Cc: Belize Culture
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2011 7:00 AM
Subject: Re: Bz-Culture: bus cunnu

Is it possible separate politics from reality?

The government should divvy up the country into defined transportation areas/routes and go out to bid to grant an exclusive franchise for each defined area. A bi-partisan or non-partisan selection committee (with some folks from transportation industry in other countries) could be convened to review proposals...

But, the system of government we have isn't set up to serve the interest of the people.... it's set up as a spoils system for the Ministers to exercise discretion, play games, and skim off the top.

MEL

THE BEST VIEW OF TRANSPORT MINISTER MELVIN HULSE, IS THAT HE IS A COUNTRY BUMPKIN LIGHTWEIGHT, WITHOUT ANY RECORD OF RELIABLE REGULAR WORK. THE WORST VIEW IS; HE IS CORRUPT AND OPEN TO CRIMINALITY. Take your choice, depends on who you talk too! The CABINET collectively cannot seem to work together as a group? Or they do not as a policy of earning graft from their cabinet posts, like to interfere with the scams that other CABINET MINISTER positions are earning, for the assigned MINISTER, by the party leader DON of DONS. The unelected Prime Minister, not earning his position by popular vote, as in a REPUBLIC, or through perhaps PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. As you say, it is the piratical spoils system for politicians. Proven many times by other COMMONWEALTH type countries.