Ever since the most unwise scrapping of the railways in Guyana in the early

1970s by the PNC government, despite overwhelming pleadings from the PPP and the wider society not to do so, the transportation woes of Guyanese commuters have never been comprehensively solved. In fact, with the growth and diversification of the national economy over the last 15 years the commuter traffic has dramatically increased and this has worsened the transportation problem.
The Hoyte led government sought to solve the transportation problem by allowing the importation of minibuses, but while admittedly this did bring some ease to commuters it never comprehensively solved the problem. In fact, the minibuses have created new and innumerable problems resulting from what we refer to as the “minibus culture.” And so today, despite the proliferation of minibuses, almost on a daily basis huge throngs of commuters at most of the bus parks are seen stranded, sometimes for hours. Among those commuters are young children and workers, many of whom are females who leave their homes very early in the morning in order to get to work or school on time. So to be stranded for hours in the evenings, being hungry and tired, and in many cases some of these commuters have household chores or school work to complete it is truly torturous.
In addition, many commuters have become victims of robberies during the dark hours as well as victims of the rapacious minibus operators who demand exorbitant fares.
But the transportation woes do not only adversely affect commuters but rather it would impact negatively on the national economy as well because the labour output and productivity of fatigued workers would obviously be decreased.
Against this backdrop Guyanese commuters would be heartened by the disclosure by the Ministry of Transport that the government intends to reintroduce the big buses, a move which was being contemplated for some time now. Understandably because of the logistical and other challenges and complications it is not move that can be hastily implemented. It needs careful studies and analyses to ensure its modus operandi is most effective and efficient. And transport Minister Robeson Benn alluded to this during a recent encounter with the Region 3 business community.
“We are bringing in some big buses to test the system,” benn said.
He made it clear that government cannot just bring back the system and implement it without conducting the appropriate studies and surveys.
Test runs
He said the key areas that have to be looked at are the viability of returning to it and the cost to commuters, as well as the maintenance of the mode to be used; hence the buses will conduct the test runs.
Benn said it also has to do with the level of investments that will be made available, pointing out that there is a lot of fear, mostly on the part of those operating private transport countrywide.
Another solution being looked at to deal with the problem of stranded commuters, especially between Regions 3 and 4 in the mornings and afternoons is the bringing back of the ferry service from stellings at Stabroek in Georgetown and Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara.
Presently, many persons are forced to transit from the West Demerara stelling, in the mornings, to get to work in Georgetown because traffic is, usually, moving very slowly across the Demerara Harbour Bridge (DHB).
This intended move to reintroduce the ferry service would be welcome by most commuters because even though there is a speed service it is relatively expensive to use it, especially for low-income workers who have to travel on a daily basis. Also elderly citizens and handicapped persons find it difficult to use.
In fact, it was an unwise decision in the first place to close the ferry service. All that was needed was to use a smaller launch-type vessel instead of the big ferries that were in use because clearly it was uneconomical to do so.
Nevertheless, what is evident from all of these proposals is that the government is very cognisant of the problems affecting the people at the grass root level and more importantly it is working diligently towards finding solutions.
That is how a people-oriented government operates and despite what its detractors may say, it has consistently proven that it is committed to improving the lives of all Guyanese.