As the community continues to grapple with daily traffic congestion, it appears a solution to the woes felt by commuters is still far from taking shape.
Infrastructure Minister Jay Ebanks, speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, 27 Feb., offered little in terms of providing government’s policy direction for Cayman’s bus service nor timelines on the rollout of the recommendations in the Deloitte transport report.
As he faced questions from Deputy Opposition Leader Joey Hew on the report, the minister assured the report had not been shelved.
“There’s really no right answer right off the top of the head … when it comes to transportation system. We can just put anything in place and it may work, it may not,” Ebanks said.
Ebanks said experts from the UK Department of Transport have been seconded to assist the ministry in reviewing and implementing a transport plan for the islands.
However, he did not say what approach will be taken to address the existing issues with the public transport system.
Need for reform
The $200,000 Deloitte report had suggested that Cayman’s private bus service be scrapped and replaced with a modern government-run public bus network. It also suggested more than 30 practical ways that the bus system could be improved and modernised.
Ebanks reminded that his ministry inherited the Deloitte report when he took over the transport element from the Ministry of Tourism last April.
“We have tasked [the UK review team] with coming up with the most creative way and the best solution … for the Cayman Islands,” Ebanks said.
The minister, in a seeming jab at his predecessors which included Hew, suggested that previous administrations had shown “little to no” support for public transport.
“The lack of attention is exactly why we are grappling with the current issues in the transportation system,” he said as he appealed for the public’s understanding as the process continues.
“We acknowledge the public concerns and can assure you that our team is actively engaging and seeking solutions and advancing evolution of the transportation system,” he said.
Ebanks said work is continuing on a business case to create the Department of Transport which could see the merging of the National Roads Authority, the Department of Vehicle and Drivers’ Licensing, and the Public Transport Unit into one mega transport authority.
While he said this marks the “first instance of prioritising public transport”, the minister did not provide any timelines for the amalgamation of those entities.
The merging of those transportation-related departments was among the recommendations from the Deloitte report, which was commissioned to look at Cayman’s public transport system.
As part of the reform of local transport sector, the ministry also launched a National Road Safety Strategy and there is currently an ongoing campaign for residents to pledge to drive safer on local roads.
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As I have commented many times before, we need to deal with the main bottlenecks: the Hurleys and ALT roundabouts.
The solution is not cheap but will be effective, a flyover (overpass).
Of course the current bus system isn’t fit for purpose. People in London don’t need cars because they can rely on a public transport system that works in the evenings and at the weekends. That doesn’t decide not to run the whole route because the bus is currently empty. According to Cayman Resident magazine:
“Bus Depot Hours
Monday–Friday 6am–7pm
A limited, non-scheduled service operates on a Saturday & Sunday which isn’t reliable enough for tourists if on a schedule, but residents with know-how could make use of it.”