Barbados PSVs to halt evening services on non-commercial routes from Aug 1 amid crime fears

Barbados: Public Service Vehicles (PSV) buses in Barbados are scheduled to suspend evening services on non-commercial routes after 6 p.m. effectively from August 1 due to rising concerns over violent crimes in the country. 

Roy Raphael, chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport, announced the development in an interview that the initiative is aimed to protect the drivers and passengers that will be using the vehicles. 

The chairman voiced concerns over security in some parts of the country saying that he is deeply concerned about the current situation in the country, like anyone would be. 

The crimes have not affected the PSV transport community yet but sooner or later they may come to affect and we cannot afford to wait. We must act now, the initiative starting August 1 aims to protect the operators and the passengers in the vehicle. 

Effectively August 1 2025, the PSV operators will not be picking persons on site after 6 p.m. Instead passengers are encouraged to pre-book rides or arrange to get private taxis in the hours after 6 p.m. He encouraged citizens to use apps such as Pick Up Caribbean and Bim Ride, as when making travel arrangements late at night. 

He added that the safety of those onboard a vehicle is of utmost importance, therefore the vehicles will not be picking up anybody on sight or those who randomly stop the vehicles, to protect those onboard as that will be putting the drivers and passengers at risk. 

He noted that this time around the PSV will be mindful of whom they put into their vehicles and they will be in direct communication with the law enforcement officers. 

Additional measures that may be taken, is not allowing one or two people to sit in the back of the vehicle, and only utilizing  the front seats. The PSV vehicles will also be doing a facial view  so that a full account can be given to the police  in case of any incident. 

The chairman assured that by the end of the year, if everything goes well the PSVwill be conducting specialized training on  their personnel of both buses and taxis so they can identify when a threat is approaching as well as know how to deal with it. 

The chairman did not want to name the routes but encouraged the citizens to make use of the taxi service. As of after 6:00 p.m.  their units will be shutting down, because of some intensive  criminal activities that are ongoing in the country. 

Routes that will continue to get services after six are such as Route 10, Route 11, Route 33 Y, and some other routes that are considered commercial vehicles. But other vehicles in the North and  some parts of the South will be affected. 

As of July 12, Barbados was at eight road fatalities and 28 homicides for the year.

Citizens of Barbados have not taken the news well as many highlighted that most of the commuters finish work after 6, one member saying “6 p.m. is early from people with standard working hours trying to get home. I get the safety concerns but this will not be easy for working commuters”