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Dear Sir

Traffic congestion on Bermuda's roads needs to be addressed by reducing the number of new cars coming onto the island and vastly overhauling the public transportation system here.

It's fabulous that Government, at last, is trying to assess the problem and tackle it by encouraging more people to use public transportation, but take it from someone with experience in this: Public transportation is already under 100 per cent strain and can't deal with any more passengers unless there is a radical re-think to schedules and routes.

Since I got here four years ago I have never owned a scooter or car. I have used public transportation every day for the last four years.

I have lived in many parts of the island, from Dockyard to Shelly Bay, and public transportation in Bermuda is appalling island-wide.

After four years I now know why having your own transport is so popular - it's because the alternative is unreliable and inconvenient. Several girlfriends of mine have also been here years without their own transportation and have the same problems.

I have a mandatory 8.30am start to the office day, Monday to Friday. Getting into Hamilton for this time is a virtual impossibility. What is the big mystery? I would have thought it was simple - in the mornings most passengers are trying to get INTO Hamilton, in the evenings most passengers are trying to get OUT OF Hamilton. But transportation authorities are not taking this into consideration.

It frequently takes 45 minutes to do the 10 mile trip from Shelly Bay to Hamilton on the bus in the morning (and that's when it's not raining). Why so long? Because I wait at the bus stop in Shelly Bay in the early morning while one or even two Hamilton buses drive past me without stopping as the vehicle is crammed and has at least 15 people standing. (This is outrageous in itself given Shelly Bay is not even close to town and the bus is already full). So I wait some more. Four or five half empty buses go by labelled Prospect, Cedarbridge and Barnes Corner.

Time keeps on ticking. I have now been waiting 30 minutes for the bus (they are supposed to be every 15 minutes).

On reaching the city, at the bus stop at the tennis stadium, every day I see one quarter of the bus passengers disembark - school children! But pupils have their own buses - they are allowed onto their bus or the regular bus. Commuters are not!

The journey out of town at the end of the day is a similar misery. Having the same timetable running summer and winter is a dead loss.

Bad for tourism

I lost count of the amount of times this summer that I overheard exasperated, cramped tourists, forced to stand all the way to St George's squashed against sweaty passengers say to pals: "I read that taking a bus in Bermuda is cute and a nice way to see some scenery - but this is horrible. I am never taking a bus in Bermuda again".

Tourists are always lined up at Hamilton bus terminal at just the same time commuters are trying to catch buses home from a day in the office - that is typically between 5pm and 6pm. Hotels need to caution tourists to avoid the commuter times if possible.

The ferry from Rockaway does not run frequently enough, especially early in the mornings. Many times there was not one seat to be found free when I lived in Dockyard.

In any case if you want to stay in town after work for dinner or to see a movie you're in trouble because ferries do not run regularly in the evening and shut down too early.

Neither buses nor ferries run on time and even if they do they are often full and you cannot sit making the journey uncomfortable and unpleasant.

Routes/timetables mean that many sections of the island (Spanish Point, John Smith's Bay and so on) are a no-go area accommodation-wise if you are without your own transportation.

The bus and ferry schedules are antiquated and do not fit the needs of passengers.

We need a summer and winter timetable that is different - many more runs in summer when all the tourists are here. Sunday buses and ferries are a nightmare. The runs need to be the same as Monday to Saturday.

We need water taxis. We need evening schedules that better reflect modern needs.

And for goodness sake start running services to ALL parts of the island at reasonable times.

When schools are out the number of cars on the roads during rush hour drops dramatically. Somebody please do the maths here!

Nancy W. White

Shelly Bay

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