Final five of 100 buses arrive for PTSC

In this 2020 file photo, the Deluxe Coach buses are launched at the PTSC terminal in Arima. - ROGER JACOB
In this 2020 file photo, the Deluxe Coach buses are launched at the PTSC terminal in Arima. - ROGER JACOB

THE final tranche of 100 buses ordered by the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) almost a decade ago arrived in TT on Saturday.

The five red, white and black buses arrived last week and will be processed over the weekend.

Speaking to Sunday Newsday, PTSC chairman Edwin Gooding said, “I’m glad we have five additional buses. We are very short on buses now, so the fact that we are getting five new buses is good. We are putting them mainly in rural areas where people have been looking for our service.”

Asked to clarify the shortage of buses, with  100 procured in 1tenyears, he briefly said, “We're still short on buses,” and that information on issues surrounding the corporation’s fleet has already been aired in public.

He added: “The major transformation of the PTSC will now start. Those buses are the last five of 100 that started to come somewhere back in 2014, so the real story that we have been more or less promoting is the importation of 300 more buses. That is the next stage.”

He said most of the buses in the new 300 fleet will be electric buses.

But does TT the infrastructure to support these electric buses? Gooding said, “No, we don’t have any as yet. We are now putting that in place.”

He could not say how soon this will be done.

“It’s just that we started the process. The major thing is getting finances and that has not been arranged as yet.

“The main thing with these 300 buses is really our objective of going green, through electric buses. The majority will be electric, others will be CNG and a few will be diesel for certain area. That’s the next big thrust with PTSC, including a new terminal, new routes, and that is a plan that will take three-five years.”

The PTSC in recent years set up CNG stations at its main hub at City Gate, Port of Spain.

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"Final five of 100 buses arrive for PTSC"

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