Nearly a year ago, the Prime Minister condemned the Priority Bus Route pass system as a "free for all" and ordered the recall of permits numbered 0001 through 0645. The passes allow vehicles to use the dedicated bus lanes on the Priority Bus Route - one of the most congested transport corridors in Trinidad.
The Guardian investigated what happened after the recall. The findings: distribution patterns are largely unchanged. Only 360 of the 650 recalled passes were returned. One hundred and forty passes were issued to private citizens, 41 to Members of Parliament, and 30 to Senators.
Minister Zakour did not respond to the Guardian's questions.
What a Pass Is Worth
The Priority Bus Route exists to give public transport a dedicated lane free of private vehicle traffic. When private vehicles use the lane via passes, the advantage of dedicated public transport infrastructure is diluted. The more passes in circulation, the less priority the bus route actually provides.
Every pass issued to a private citizen, MP, or senator is a vehicle that shares the lane with buses, reducing the speed advantage that justifies the dedicated infrastructure. At 650 passes before the recall - and an unknown number after, since only 360 were returned - the Priority Bus Route is something less than a bus route and something less than a general traffic lane. It is a privilege corridor.
The Cosmetic Reform
The PM's public condemnation of the system and the recall order were presented as reform. A year later, the data suggests the reform was cosmetic.
Of 650 passes recalled, only 360 came back - a return rate of 55%. This means 290 passes are unaccounted for. They may be in use. They may have been discarded. But the system cannot distinguish between a returned pass and one that simply was never handed in, because there is no digital tracking mechanism.
The new distribution - 140 to private citizens, 41 to MPs, 30 to Senators - raises its own questions. What criteria were used to issue passes to private citizens? Were the criteria published? Were applications competitive? Or did the new system reproduce the old one, with passes distributed through connections rather than transparent allocation?
The Transparency Fix That Did Not Happen
A reformed PBR pass system would have clear, published eligibility criteria, digital tracking of pass usage, regular audits of who holds passes, and public disclosure of the distribution list. None of these measures have been confirmed as implemented.
The pass holders' names are, in principle, obtainable through a Freedom of Information request. Whether any such request has been filed is unknown. But the information should not require a FOIA request - a transparent system would publish it proactively.
The PBR pass issue is small in fiscal terms compared to billion-dollar infrastructure projects and state enterprise losses. But it is the kind of governance indicator that reveals how reform actually works in Trinidad and Tobago: publicly announced, symbolically dramatic, and substantively unchanged.
The PM condemned the system. The minister was told to fix it. A year later, the system continues. The minister did not respond to questions. And the people sitting in traffic while pass holders glide past in the bus lane are left to conclude that nothing has changed except the rhetoric.