Transport Minister Provides Update on Bus Upgrades in Belize

Keeping with issues of transportation, Minister of Transport gave Love News an update on how the bus upgrades are coming along. It was only a few months ago that many bus owners had opposed the government’s move to rid the roads of delapidated buses.

Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Youth, Sports and Transport: “The operators in this country that are operating buses are middle income people. They don’t have the finances to upgrade as we request and so initially when we came in I told them the deadline of being June of 2022 that is long past. Then we went to December of 2022 and then now we’re telling them by December of 2023 50% of their fleet must be upgraded and by 2024 there must be a completion of the upgrade and this will follow by legislation because we have now set the standard through Cabinet of what we want to run on our highways. But despite that some buses are taking the stand and they are upgrading already. I could tell you there are a few new buses owned by the Tilletts in Orange Walk, the Perez’ from Sarteneja as a matter fact the two Perez’ are now in the process of upgrading their buses and likewise I see West Line did some upgrades and so it’s happening gradually.”