Ministry of Transport on Track For 2026 NBC Launch  

And the Ministry of Transport continues its work to establish a National Bus Company. According to C.E.O. Williams, two-thirds of the operators on our national highways have bought into the idea. But, due to the magnitude of the preliminary work that must be undertaken, the ministry has given itself up to June 2026 to get the company fully operational, as opposed to the initial January 2026 deadline. C.E.O. Williams explained that with the company, commuters can expect more standardized, safe, and elevated riding experience.

 

Chester Williams, Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Transport

“The consolidation is not geared at getting nobody out of a job, as you may have heard the rhetoric coming out of the bus association. Let me say that when the association speaks, they are not speaking on behalf of the majority, because they do not have a majority. They have a minority. As a part of the consolidation, what we are currently doing is an audit of the companies who have agreed to the consolidation. In order to determine what each company is valued we have to do an audit. The auditors are currently doing that as we speak. They are going to present the audit to the ministry and we will look at the value of companies and remember what we are doing is a PPP, so the current operators will buy into the national company and the assets will be brought into the PPP, that forms part of the government assets. It is our hope that we will be able to upgrade the fleet within a period of time. We cannot say that within a year we will have all the buses out, but we are looking at perhaps two years to have all the buses completed out and new buses in. in that same vein we are looking that as time progresses we upgrade. So for example we have three good buses, the three electric busses that we are currently using as a part of the pilot project. Those buses will come to the ministry of transport. So those are three brand new buses that we will inject into the company.”