Holiday Travel Surges, Transport Minister Inspects Terminal

Easter travel is picking up fast, and Belize City’s bus terminal is buzzing with holiday traffic. With more passengers on the move, Transport Minister Dr. Louis Zabaneh visited the terminal today to see how operations are holding up and to support staff on the ground. As the rush continues, we spoke with the minister about how the National Bus Company plans to handle the surge and keep travelers moving smoothly.

 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport

“I try to visit as many of the terminals as possible. So, today being the rush hour for easter I thought I would come and join Mr. Daniel Chuc who is the regional manager to assist and let them know we are with them. It is a very hectic job. Fortunately I have some experience in it. We are here and making sure that a number of things we are trying to put in place, that everybody is trying their best to do that.”

 

Paul Lopez

“What are seeing that you are displeased with?”

 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh

“We need to have more personal who will be issuing tickets. When there is a rush, it is difficult for just one or two persons to do that and then you have people who end up on the buses without tickets and that is one of the gaps we want to fill right now.”

 

Holiday Surge Prompts Additional Buses, Tighter Enforcement

 

And, with the holiday rush now in full swing, the Ministry of Transport says measures are already in place to ease congestion and keep commuters moving. Minister Zabaneh outlines how additional buses and stricter enforcement are being used to manage the surge in travel.

 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport

“We have been here from early this morning, ensuring we have the back up buses in place and we have been able to handle the morning rush, which was quite large. We had two extra buses to the west and one to the south. So that is four extra buses we put in this morning. We expect another big rush this morning. Overall we have ten buses on standby and a couple more in place We want to make sure our commuters know we are looking out for them. We also dealt with a case in which a bus had standees and we had to ensure that those persons exited and went on to one of the other buses we had on standby. Commuters were not use to that. You usually just jump in and if you have standees you go. But now we have to change that and it comes with time and discipline in place. We know that traditionally good Friday and Easter Sunday are slow days, but we have the buses in place already. Saturday will be a little bit higher than normal and of course Monday evening and Tuesday morning. So we have all our people across the country prepared for that.”

 

The minister says extra buses, added staff, and tighter enforcement are all part of the plan to keep Easter travelers moving safely as the holiday rush continues across the country.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.