Planning to Catch a Bus This Evening? Here’s What You Need to Know

If you are planning to catch a bus home this evening, here is what you need to know: BBA buses are not guaranteed to be running. A deal was reached verbally this morning, but negotiations are scheduled to begin in Belmopan this afternoon, and nothing has been signed.

What happened this morning

Commuters in the north woke up to portions of the Philip Goldson Highway blocked by buses. The Belize Bus Association (BBA) followed through on its strike threat early Monday, suspending operations nationwide and sending several buses to physically block the Toll Bridge in Orange Walk Town.

The blockade held for hours, disrupting not just bus passengers but motorists and commerce. Ministry of Transport CEO Chester Williams and police were on the ground monitoring the situation.

The bridge was eventually cleared around 8:30 a.m., after Prime Minister John Briceño had a conversation with BBA Vice President and LIMTD Bus Service owner Michael Frazer. The two reached a verbal agreement: the government would provide a three-dollar-per-gallon fuel subsidy for operators running between villages, towns, and cities; a modest fare adjustment would be negotiated; and Ian Courtenay, a representative from the Prime Minister’s office, would be present at today’s talks, a concession that signals the BBA’s distrust of Transport Minister Dr. Louis Zabaneh has been taken seriously.

“We have agreed to give us three dollars discount from the fuel price,” Frazer said after the call. “We will meet with the transport department in Belmopan to do a slight fare adjustment. We have asked for a person from his office to be present because we believe that Mr. Zabaneh is not being fair to us.”

Frazer added that the Prime Minister would send the agreement via WhatsApp and then in writing and that in exchange, buses would clear the highway immediately.

How it got to this point

The crisis has been building for weeks, but it came to a head last Friday when the Ministry of Transport published new Cabinet-approved bus fares set to take effect Monday. Under the new rates, operators could charge eighteen cents per mile on regular routes and twenty cents per mile on express routes.

For long-distance travellers, the numbers are significant. A trip from Punta Gorda to Belize City, a hundred and sixty miles, would now cost thirty-nine dollars one way on a regular bus, or forty-three dollars and fifty cents on express. Corozal to Belize City, eighty-nine miles, would run fifteen dollars and twenty-five cents one way on a regular bus.

A quick Facebook poll by News Five drew more than two thousand responses, with ninety-six percent opposing the hikes.

But the real shock came Saturday morning, when the BBA issued a press release saying it “categorically and unequivocally rejects” the new fares, and that it was never consulted and never agreed to them. The association said the Ministry developed the rates using an internal formula without meaningful operator input, and gave the government until Sunday to provide a fuel subsidy capping pump prices at nine dollars and fifty cents per gallon or buses would stop Monday.

By Saturday afternoon, the government blinked. Transport Minister Zabaneh announced at a press briefing that the fare increases would be pulled entirely. “Since the BBA is saying they don’t wish for the rates, and that they reject the rates, then we will remove the rates,” he said. “No increase in rates to our people. Instead, the Prime Minister has agreed we will work on a subsidy for the BBA.”

It appeared the crisis had been averted. It had not.

On Sunday, the BBA wrote an urgent letter to Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde, accusing the Ministry of Transport of issuing press releases that quietly excluded Belize City runs from the subsidy framework. The association said this was not an oversight; it was a pattern. They gave the Ministry one final hour to issue a corrected release covering all routes, including all village runs and Belize City runs, with the subsidy kicking in at any pump price above ten dollars per gallon. The hour passed. And on Monday morning, the buses stopped.

The National Bus Company is still running

One important note for commuters: the National Bus Company has not raised its fares and has not joined the strike. If NBC serves your route, service should be unaffected. Check with your usual terminal for availability.

Also, following the strike, the Ministry of Transport announced contingency measures. It requested from the NBC and other operators “to fill the void as much as possible to service our commuters in Corozal and Orange Walk.”

What to expect this evening

A formal negotiating session began at 12:30 p.m. at the Ministry of Transport in Belmopan. News Five is there and will provide updates as they come.

Until a written agreement is signed and confirmed, BBA bus service this evening is not guaranteed. If you depend on a BBA route to get home, it would be wise to have a backup plan like arranging a ride.

The Prime Minister struck a cautiously optimistic tone. “We have to find a balance,” Briceño said, noting that while operators are struggling with rising fuel costs, passengers cannot absorb steep fare increases either. “We recognize that there is a crisis.”