It is no secret that for quite some time, our country’s public transport system was in dire need of some reformation and assistance and now, there is some good news on the way. The Ministry of Public Utilities, Energy, and Logistics has launched the Public Transportation Reform Project, which will focus on capacity building. It is being undertaken through a technical cooperation with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Government of South Korea. The Cooperation is a continuation based on the recommendations outlines in a Comprehensive National Transportation Master Plan (CNTMP) funded by the IDB in 2017.
While there are several components of this project, there are five main ones. Firstly, it intends to complete a full policy and legal review as well as an update of the public transport system. Belizeans will now be privy to a new bus routing, scheduling, and ticketing system, making travelling in public a lot less of a hassle. Under this component of the project, there will be the preparation of a new bus scheduling and routing design for the entire country as well as the collection of data on passenger demand, origin, and destination. Next, there will be capacity building to strengthen the management and supervision of public transportation through institutional modernization and training with the implementation of a Transport Planning Unit. Fourthly, there will be the dissemination and sharing of knowledge from South Korea to Belize with regards to their public transport system and lastly, there will be public campaigns to disseminate findings and educate end users of the enhancements on both the national level and day to day use.
The project will be led by the newly established Transport Planning Unit through the Department of Transport. The new members of the Transport team are Eric Sanchez, transport planner, and Trudy Joseph, the administrative and procurement officer, who will be executing the technical cooperation and other related projects in alignment with Belize’s Public Transport Strategy.
