OBA Leader on Bus Schedule U-Turn: ‘The Public Has Judged & What Has Been Delivered Has Failed’

• The following statement was released today by One Bermuda Alliance Leader Craig Cannonier

I agree 100 percent with the Shadow Transport Minister Leah Scott that restoring the old timetable was the right thing to do as, clearly, the new schedule was causing considerable problems for bus users which would have got worse with the influx of visitors in the summer.

However, I want to add a bit more context to this. On March 26, a statement from the Transport Ministry, which presumably the Minister sanctioned, said that initial results from a survey into the new schedule had been “good and generally positive”.

A month later we are told, abruptly, that the new schedule is to be abandoned. This is an astonishing and highly embarrassing U-turn by the Minister.

When the new schedule was announced, we had the Bermuda Industrial Union, the Minister and the DPT all rejoicing that at last, after 17 years in the making, there was finally something to work with.

Yet one of the given for abandoning the schedule was a lack of rest times for drivers. How was this not spotted before the schedule was put in place?

Finally, the Premier was quoted recently as saying: “The Government will be judged by how we deliver.” Mr Premier, the public has judged and what has been delivered has failed.