No IDs needed for school children, seniors to ride PTSC buses for free

The Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) made good on Wednesday on a promise made one week ago by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to allow school children in uniform and seniors 60 and over ride free on the corporation's buses.

PTSC Chairman Devant Maharaj and Minister in the Transport Ministry, Stacy Roopnarine, launched the free services at City Gaty, Port-of-Spain.

Under the new arrangement there will no longer be a need for a pass.

PTSC’s Acting General Manager, Brian Juanette said, “Now everyone over 60 years will be allowed to travel free of charge and all they have to do is present a form of identification to the driver.” For school children their automatic identification is their school uniform.

“Now, as long as they are wearing their uniforms, all school children will travel for free,” the chairman said.

The PTSC will make sure marshalls are on board the buses to ensure the safety of all passengers and to prevent children from “joy-riding”.

Maharaj told reporters the expected surge in ridership would not affect the PTSC's capacity to deliver since the service does not operate at full capacity aty the present time.

“We have also increased the fleet size, through PTSC’s rapid repair programme, to 330 working buses. I have also written the ministry for approval of an additional 100, so by next year we should hope to have around 500 to 600 buses,” Maharaj said.