City Shuttle Bus Ltd and Belize City Council at Odds Over E-buses

Public transportation is one that has been around in the Old Capital for at least four decades. It was private owners who began to offer routes in the Pen Road and Lake-I areas, then came the King’s Park Port Loyola, Call Centre and other runs later. Today, one of the ten city bus operators came out swinging at the Belize City Council over concerns about its pending e-buses project. Phillip Jones claims that the Belize City Council wants to control the city bus industry by introducing a proposal that will kick them out of business. But the City Council says nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the council says all they want to do is give city residents an option to ride in air-conditioned comfort or not, for a dollar more. News Five’s Marion Ali has the story in this report.

 

Arthur Saldivar, Attorney for City Shuttles Ltd.

“It’s a ball-faced attempt to do, by means of economic disadvantage, strongarm from small operators and large that which they have invested in their life’s blood and experience in for, in the case of city of did more than 35 years.”

 

 

 

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

The e-buses that we’ve been hearing so much about in Belize City are much anticipated, but one transportation provider says he has many questions about that e-bus project. Attorney Arthur Saldivar called a press conference today to say that his client, Phillip Jones, believes that the Belize City Council has ulterior motives with the introduction of the e-buses pilot project.

 

 

 

Arthur Saldivar

“The main issue is that the regulator entering into the field and competing against those who have been developing the industry would have the unfair advantage of picking and cherry-picking routes, which means then you’re basically undermining the profitability of those entities that were providing the service from time immemorial.”

 

 

 

 

The Belize City Council says nothing could be further from the truth. This afternoon, Mayor Bernard Wagner and E-bus Coordinator, Neil Hall, called their own briefing to set the record straight. They said that the Council will charge three dollars for the e-bus runs, which is a dollar more than what bus operators currently charge.

 

Bernard Wagner, Mayor, Belize City

“We are managing it, not for profit, but we have to be able to not under-price the current bus operators, we don’t want to undersell them. If I could only go and say since I get this boss free, I wouldn’t say, I could say $1 for new company bus $1. What will that do? That would be driving them out of .”

 

 

 

 

Neil Hall, E-bus Coordinator, Belize City Council

“First and foremost, again, they started off their press briefing with us saying that for them to be a part of this, they will need to surrender 51 percent of their businesses. Nothing is further from the truth. At no time has anyone ever even hinted, stated, I don’t know what the word would be, that they would need to forego 51 percent of their businesses to be a part of this because they are a part of it already. I really don’t understand where their lawyer came up with, they have not been given an opportunity to speak, to be heard, or even consulted. Our route is different than any existing route that is, currently available.”

 

 

Hall explained that five bus operators were in a meeting with them just a week ago and that no one indicated that they had an issue. He said that the purpose of the pilot project is to see how well the e-buses work in Belize. After a year, the data collected on their performance would be available for the bus operators to seek loans to upgrade their fleet and run their routes. During the City Shuttle’s press conference, Saldivar also spoke of the deficiencies in the current system and the lack of proper bus stops. This is another concern that the City Council said it will address as it moves to upgrade the service. No other bus operators were present to lend support to City Shuttle Limited. Marion Ali for News Five.