Mr. Bashir Mohammed

General Manager

Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC)

South Quay,

Port of Spain

13 November 2019

Dear Sir,

RE: DISRUPTION OF SCHEDULED SERVICES – J137 PORT OF SPAIN TO PIARCO

We, the undersigned members of the Piarco Bus Service Group write to solicit your intervention regarding the lack of consistency of the Port of Spain to Piarco (J137) daily bus service.

Our group was formed to provide its members with reliable updates regarding the location of the buses, due to the current unpredictable nature of the service.

Currently, the group consists of close to 100 persons who work in the Piarco area for companies such as: Airport Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (AATT); Trinidad & Tobago Postal Corporation; Katerserv; Swissport Cargo; Caribbean Airlines and Caribbean Airlines Cargo; Laparkan; F.G.S.G Security, Amerijet, Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service & Trincity Mall, and who use this service daily.

The Problem:

Many of us rely on this service to offset the cost of daily transportation between Port of Spain and Piarco, and to reduce the need to use multiple forms of transport to get to work, due to the distance. Given the current crime situation in our country, our members utilize the bus service to avoid becoming victims of crime, as our work hours require many of us to be on the move from as early as 5:45 AM, right up to 8:00 PM.

For the month of November alone, many of us have waited for the 7:05 AM service to Piarco, at the PTSC South Quay terminal, only to be told at the last minute that there is a mechanical issue with the bus, resulting in that service not operating as scheduled. While the issues with the 7:05 AM service has prompted us to formally write, it comes on the heels of continuous disruptions to the other scheduled services as well, for reasons such as: no available buses, mechanical issues, and late departure of scheduled services.

To add to the problem, when the information desk is contacted to find out if the service will operate, they are either unable to provide the information because they do not know, or they provide incorrect information - which means that persons who are waiting for the bus in San Juan, Curepe and Tunapuna often stand there waiting for a bus that never arrives, resulting in persons getting to their respective places of employment late.

Also, the lack of courtesy and professionalism shown by the Customer Service agents at the Information booth further exacerbates this problem as they often seem to be annoyed when members of the public call or approach the booth requesting information about a particular service.

These issues reflect poorly, not only on your organization, but on the overall developmental status of our country as well, as the service also facilitates international travelers, who are used to more efficient public transportation, particularly in the vicinity of the country’s International Airport.

The disruptions highlighted above only serve to discourage the use of public transportation, and further undermine the public’s confidence in PTSC’s ability to provide the level of service that the tax-paying citizens of this country deserve.

Based on the amount of funds allocated to PTSC, under the Ministry of Works and Transport, in the recent Budget 2019/2020 presentation, for the acquisition of 100 new buses at an estimated cost of TTD 16M, and the expected implementation of a Global Positioning / Automatic Vehicle Location System, at a cost to tax-payers of TTD 1M, we expect that the concerns highlighted here can be rectified with these allocations and upgrades.

In the interim, some simple and practical solutions can be implemented:

• Customer Service: Customer Service Representative should be made aware that their function is to provide a service to the public by providing accurate information, in a professional and courteous manner.
• Communication between Dispatch/Scheduling and Information Desk: The dispatcher can provide information to the Info Desk on the availability of a bus service, at least 15 minutes before the service’s scheduled departure time and provide feedback to the waiting passengers using the PA system or notify them by placing a visible sign for anyone coming for the service to see.
• Daily operation of J137, Port of Spain to Piarco, including weekends and holidays - particularly the service operated at 7:05 AM, which many of us rely on to get to our places of employment for 8:00 AM.
• Substitute Drivers: Utilize substitute drivers in the event a driver calls in sick or is on vacation.

We look forward to your acknowledgement of this correspondence in writing, as the many attempts to submit complaints via the PTSC website have met with no response.

Please send your responses via email to [email protected].

Respectfully Submitted,

CC:

Ms. Sherry-Ann Lee-Hunte, Deputy General Manager, Marketing & Communications;

Mr. Bevan Cook, Deputy General Manager, Operations

Mr. Shawn Harris, Asst. Deputy General Manager, Operations (Nor.