The Bus Wars - much to the horror and outrage of powerless commuters - they are raged every day and night on Belize's Highways. We're referring to the habit of racing between competing bus lines, who are fighting for passengers. On Saturday evening in Belize City, the extreme driving practices were brought into sharp focus - when one bus tried to overtake another on the foot of Vernon Street Bridge.
The culprit was Ramos Bus, trying to overtake a Stuart Bus. Their scheduled runs are 15 minutes apart, but - as is the old practice - the earlier bus hangs back to scoop up passengers from its competitor. On Saturday afternoon, it reached another ridiculous extreme.
Daren Stuart who had the later run says that Ramos was trying to come into his time:..
Daren Stuart, Stuart's Bus Line
"He intentionally and deliberately refused to go in his time. He decide to stay on my time for as long as he possibly could. The reality is all I want from them is respect. Respect my schedule. Respect my time. I respect yours. It's unfortunate that he wanted to charge the people $2 from Ladyville to Belize and back. I charge $1.50 and the people choose me over him. That's his downfall. That's his choice, so all I am looking for is a peaceful solution, but I want the transport department to come and get involve and start to regulate us out there."
"I am prepared to pay a stipend if the department is going to make a small charge for each and every one of us that is using that Pound Yard area for departure. If it is $2, $3, $5 whatever we need to pay per day to put somebody out there to control the departure time of each and every one of those busses out there."
Stuart made a police report - but would encourage the owner of Ramos Bus Line to sit and work it out with him - to simply replace the damaged part on his bus.
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