~ 560 taxis, 100 buses registered ~
PHILIPSBURG--The transportation market on Dutch St Maarten is saturated with 521 taxis and more than 200 buses operating, Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport, and Telecommunication (TEATT), Grisha Heyliger-Marten said on Monday.
Speaking on Breakfast Lounge with Lady Grace on PJD2 Radio, the minister underscored the need for better control and said she plans to conduct a carrying capacity study to assess the country’s limits in the transportation and tourism areas (see related story).
The minister said that for the past seven months she has faced constant requests for new taxi licences. “Seven months I’m in this position. There isn’t a week that goes by that someone doesn’t call me and say they want a taxi licence. … I find myself on a weekly basis telling people I am not giving out any licences, and I have not given out not one taxi licence. I haven’t even done ‘Help Chauffeurs’ as yet; we are about to. I haven’t even given any bus [licence], nothing,” she said firmly. “It’s 521 taxis on the Dutch side. You know how many taxis are on the French side? Less than 100 or 100. We are at 521 – 16 square miles, they are at 100 and something; they have more square miles than us."
The bus situation is equally concerning, with a significant difference between the numbers of buses on the two sides of the island. "The buses we have 200-and-something buses registered on the Dutch side. Do you know how much there are on the French side – 30? What are we busy with here?” the Minister asked.
Blame for the current situation, according to the Minister, lies with past ministers who issued licences without structure. “Who are to blame? I would say past ministers who just issued, issued, issued, I could only assume. It has to stop, and it has to be structured. It is now saturated.”
The Minister acknowledged the growing frustration among those affected by the situation, particularly those struggling to find work. “I’m hearing, ‘I can’t find work because they’re hurting,’ and I’m going to add more to that: I can’t in good conscience do that. So, we have to find a structural way to decide how we are going to move forward, and if I have to do it by law, that’s the plan," she said.
The Minister has been actively working in collaborating with French St Martin to develop new policies and strategies for transportation. "I’ve been sitting with the Traffic Department coming up with ways to restructure and how we are going to work together with the North [side of the island – Ed.] in coming up with new policies in place."
A larger plan is to restructure the entire transportation system. "The plan is to revamp the entire transportation system, even coming up in the near future or later down with a transportation authority. But this is all we are busy with right now.
