Government Pushes Ahead with Bus Sector Modernization Talks

The Government is continuing to advance reforms within the public transportation sector, with renewed engagement between the Ministry of Transportation and key industry stakeholders.  This week, Minister of Transportation, Dr. Louis Zabaneh, met with members of the Belize Bus Owners Cooperative during a working session held at the Ministry’s conference room in Belmopan. The meeting focused on improving operational efficiency and strengthening service delivery across the country’s bus network.  According to the Ministry, discussions centered on several critical areas, including the use of bus terminals, the implementation of standardized ticketing policies, and the coordination of bus schedules to better serve commuters.  Minister Zabaneh noted that the ongoing discussions form part of broader efforts by the Government to modernize the transport sector.

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport: “We continue to work with the different sectors of the bus industry. As you know, we recently signed agreements with the highway bus operators and village operators and the Belize City bus operators for a subsidy and also for adjustment of fares. Next Friday the 15th we will be engaging with all the village operators across the country so that we could start to plan the way forward, the modernization of that sector as well. This is important. Today we are here in Dangriga and we have talked about the impacts of climate change. We have to adapt for things that have been done in other parts of the world where the very carbon that’s used from traditional fuels has caused climate change. We’re also feeling the impact of high prices. So now we have to be very creative, very innovative. And in the transportation sector we’re starting with the bus industry where we’re now going to be moving from traditional diesel to electric engines, electric motors that are a fraction of the cost in terms of operational cost of running a bus. This will have a huge impact. Already just under the NBC members, there will be a savings once all those electric buses are here, of close to a million gallons of diesel a year, that will not need to be brought into Belize. So we’re not just adopting the things that we have not done, but we are also being visionary and taking mitigation actions that are also smart and that make sense, that are cost effective and that will leave us stronger, more resilient, instead of being vulnerable to all of these price changes that occur outside of our control.”

This week’s meeting follows intense negotiations between government officials and the Belize Bus Association over rising operational costs.  As a result, government agreed to a fuel subsidy for school bus runs.  The subsidy will cover two hundred and seventy-eight school bus runs nationwide, benefiting more than four thousand students and teachers. Under the program, operators will receive a subsidy of three dollars per gallon of fuel, retroactive from April 13 to the end of the current school year./