Barbados Transport Board

An old Barbados Transport Board bound Bridgetown bus BM 322 turning into Fairchild Street in Bridgetown.

The Barbados Transport Board is the government owned bus transport provider in the country of Barbados. The fare is BD$2.00 per ride to any point on the island for adults, (free for senior citizens), $1.50 for children under 18 years of age, (although free for children with school clothes or crests). The headquarters is located at Kays House, Roebuck Street, while the main terminal is at Fairchild Street in Bridgetown. The other three terminals are: the River Terminal (located just across the river from the Main Terminal, The Princess Alice Terminal also in Bridgetown and the Speightstown Terminal, St. Peter in the north.[1]

Tokens, each valid for one ride.

The Barbados Transport Board now has a fleet of approximately 304 buses. The buses are blue in colour with a yellow trim and white top. The buses had drivers and conductors to collect fares, but now have automatic fare collection machines since the 1990s. The new Wayfarer bus ticket system was introduced in April, 2005 for all Transport Board buses. The Transport Board also compete with the privately owned white and maroon stripe coloured route taxis (called ZRs) and the yellow and blue stripe coloured mini-buses. The Barbados Transport Board was approved in June, 1955 by draft legislation of the Governor of Barbados. Three months later, an act of Parliament was passed on 24 August 1955, establishing the Transport Board. The Transport Board's fleet of buses that they had purchased were; 20 Hino small buses in November, 1996; 40 Mercedes-Benz (OH1621) Marcopolo Torino GV and Mercedes-Benz (OH1622) Alpha Caio large buses in November, 1997; 15 Hino smaller buses, 50 Mercedes-Benz (OH1420) Marcopolo Torino and 45 Mercedes-Benz (OH1821) Busscar Urbanuss large buses and air-conditioned large buses in November, 1999 when the air-conditioned units were taken off in late September, 2006; 25 Mercedes-Benz (OH1420) Marcopolo Torino large buses in November, 2003; 5 Mercedes-Benz Allison Transmissioned Marcopolo Senior Marksell smaller buses in November, 2004; and 65 Mercedes-Benz Allison Transmissioned Marcopolo Torino large buses in November, 2006. In an article of the Sunday Sun newspaper of 10 August 2014 had stated that it would have required a new fleet of 110 additional buses along with 40 small and 70 large buses for the Transport Board but it had failed for 4 years because of the failure of the then Democratic Labour Party (DLP) government. It should need a new fleet of 330 buses or more when the old buses should have been replaced. The Transport Board's bus timetables were changed and updated on 17 April 2011 to make it a new bus schedule for the Transport Board buses, and again they had changed and updated the bus timetables on 22 June 2014 to make it the proposed bus timetables for the newly-combined bus routes like the 22B Eden Lodge/Jackson and the 25B Cave Hill/Grazettes combined bus services. They also removed some of the other combined bus routes and bus routes like the 1CA Connelltown/Josey Hill, 8AA Workmans/Greens/St. Judes, 8AB Greens/St. Judes, 13 Silver Sands, 15 Rendezvous Gardens, 17 Fordes Road, 19A Pinelands and 19B Wildey bus services. Again, it should need a new fleet of 330 buses or more for the Transport Board, the bus routes to be changed back to normal and the bus timetables to be changed back to normal anytime soon. The Transport Board also has events like the Digicel Barbados Reggae Festival, along with Reggae on the Hill in Farley Hill, St. Peter, every last Sunday in April, every year since 24 April 2005, the Crop Over Festival along with the then Mount Gay/Cable and Wireless Party Monarch finals at East Coast Road in every last Sunday in July, every year since 30 July 1995 and so many more events.

References

  1. ↑ R., A. (31 December 2010). "Bus terminals to get upgrade". The Barbados Advocate. Archived from the original on 2011-01-02. Retrieved 31 December 2010.


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