Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 25/Jan 03:46

Water taxi service needs to be better

THE EDITOR: The Ministry of Works and Transport via NIDCO (National Infrastructure Development Company Ltd) has under its purview the water taxi service. This service consists of four vessels, namely Paria Bullet, Carnival Runner, Trini Flash and Calypso Sprinter. These vessels are an essential mode of transportation for passengers who commute from south to north and vice versa daily. As such I am concerned that the Paria Bullet and Carnival Runner are stationery vessels growing barnacles and collecting moss at the San Fernando terminal. Meanwhile, the service of the Trini Flash and Calypso Sprinter are consistently ten-15 minutes late on every morning sailing from San Fernando to Port of Spain. No one knows why. All staff and passengers are there waiting, yet the vessels begin boarding only 15 minutes prior to departure. Needless to say, the duration of the journey on the Calypso Sprinter averages 45 minutes while on the Trini Flash it is an hour long. Both vessels are always filled to capacity and commuters are sometimes left behind. My concern is why is all this hustle and bustle necessary when there are two vessels that are unused? Can the Government take the focus off of the coat of arms and fix the vessels and have them functional? I have seen broken windows on both vessels and plywood covering the windows. Is something wrong with the engines as well? This wasted capacity in terms of assets growing moss in the sea is unacceptable to citizens who pay tax daily. The capacity of the working vessels are 403 passengers maximum. The cost of a one-way ticket is $15. Four full sails amount to an average of $24,000 daily, and $120,000 weekly that the government is receiving in sure revenue from this service at minimum. The two other sailings carry an average of 200 passengers in the “off-peak” hours of the day. Considering that citizens are so dedicated to their jobs that they leave their homes in the deep south in the wee hours of the morning to head to the capital city to engage in business activities that keep the economy running, can the vessels at least sail on time? Can the frequency of sailings be increased? Can the government at least consider using the revenue to fix the defective vessels instead of having them depreciate in the weather? Can the government simply prioritise transport on our island instead of the coat of arms? Buses and taxis are stuck in hours of traffic daily on the highways (due to roadworks and bottlenecks), which is why the water taxi is so essential in the lives of travelling employees. Please render us some consideration. Please reinvest some of the revenue into improving the efficiency of the service so that we can all continue to contribute to the greater good of our little island. DARIUS E JAIMUNGAL via e-mail The post Water taxi service needs to be better appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.