BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PUBLIC transportation, in this context, is the name given to local travel services that allow many people to travel together along set routes. In St. Kitts and Nevis commuters normally travel in omnibuses, commonly called passenger buses.
Over the years, there have been many accidents involving passenger buses, and while some commuters have been high in praise of certain individuals who operate these buses, there have also been negative comments about others.
From this backdrop, SKNVibes Business took to the streets of downtown Basseterre to get the views of persons who regularly use this form of transportation.
Six persons, who declined to give their names but agreed to be identified by their occupation, were interviewed.
Question: What are your views on public transportation in the city and the area in which you live? And what changes would you recommend to better this service, if any.
Housewife: “To be honest, where I live in Sandy Point, the only problem I have with the bus men is that they speed and that is something that I realise these drivers recently start with. But if you talking about them being around, we have to give them it…you can get a bus anytime.”
Plumber: “Almost every day I take the bus to reach to work and to me the bus men at Old Road need to ease up with the excessive speeding. Just the other day we had an incident because of the speeding. I think the authorities need to look into this.”
Customer Service Representative: “I deal with customers everyday and I expect when I am going home in the afternoons I should get the same treatment. I was in a bus one day and the driver had the music up so loud I had to shout at him to stop.
A few corners away, he start cuss up and snatch the coins from me after I ask him why he needed to have the music so loud, and he start off. Somebody needs to really talk to dem.”
Labourer: “They have some drivers who are really nice. People see and prefer to travel with them but then they got some that make you wonder who give them licence. It all depends on the individual behind the wheel.
A lot of people complaining on the radio and streets about the things they doing, but what I would recommend to passengers is to travel with the bus men you know and leave the rest; they gon soon come round.”
Taxi Driver: “When dealing with tourists we always try to make sure that the service we provide is so good that the next time they visit the Sugar City they know where to find us. It might seem different but if every driver does this it’s going to be better.”
Student: “Well, I know which busses to avoid because some of them do all sorts of crazy things on the road. But what I can say about the ones I know is that they look out for everyone; the elderly, the children and mothers.
We can’t expect all of them to be that way but they can at least take pattern from the others and try to make this job profitable and passengers comfortable.”
If you agree or disagree with the views above, leave a comment below and tell us at SKNVibes Business about the public transportation in your area.
