Free bus hits the road in George Town
(CNS): Government is launching a free hop-on-hop-off shuttle bus service, which will hit the roads of George Town on Monday. The new service, described as an effort to reduce traffic in the capital and cut carbon emissions, will run daily on a continuous loop from Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. The aim is to reduce cars making short trips and tackle parking issues in the town. Those targetted include individuals who work in or visit the central George Town area either for business or general errands. Minister of Commerce, Planning and Infrastructure, Joey Hew, said the shuttle service will have a number of short and long term benefits.
“It will assist many of our residents, particularly our older persons who often struggle to get around George Town,” he said. “In the longer term, we hope that the shuttle service will support Cayman’s energy efficiency goals through a reduction in emissions. If the shuttle service proves to be successful, we aim to expand the service and make it a permanent fixture for Grand Cayman.”
Energy Policy Coordinator Kristen Augustine said the service will make getting around central George Town much easier and economical for all.
“When devising the service, we wanted to ensure we that helped the tourism sector, which is still suffering as a result of the pandemic,” she said. “We have made use of existing tour buses to support those in the tourism industry who are unemployed. The spacious, air-conditioned buses will mean a comfortable and stress-free journey for passengers carrying out their daily errands.”
But as tourism returns, she said, the tour buses will be replaced with electric buses to further reduce emissions and stay true to the energy efficiency goals of the initiative.
George Town Manager Colin Lumsden welcomed the service, which aligns with the revitalisation initiative. “With current traffic issues, we are taking a multifaceted approach to the development of George Town, so having a reliable shuttle service in and around the revitalisation area will allow residents the option to move around the town easier. Work continues on the design and development of George Town’s existing infrastructure, which includes new road redesigns and upgrades along with a focus on the pedestrianising of the central business district,” he added.
The shuttles will be branded for passengers to recognise, and all passengers will be required to wear masks.
See the full shuttle service route and stops here:
Route 1
- Government Administration Building (GAB) – Elgin Avenue
- Farmers’ Market – Huldah Avenue
- Credit Union – Huldah Avenue
- Pines – Pines Drive
- Rear of Hospital – Pines Drive
- Front of Hospital – Health Service Authority
- Atlantis – South Church Street
- North Terminal – North Church Street
- Court House – Fort Street
- Sandbox – North Church Street
- WORC – Mary Street
- Elizabethan Square- Shedden Road
- GAB – Elgin Avenue
Route 2
- GAB – Elgin Avenue
- First Caribbean – Shedden Road
- WORC – Mary Street
- Old Scotia Bank – Albert Panton Street
- Anderson Square – Shedden Road
- Guy Harveys – South Church Street
- Front of Hospital – Health Service Authority
- Back of Hospital – Pines Drive
- Pines – Pines Drive
- Credit Union – Huldah Avenue
- Cayman National Bank – Elgin Avenue
- GAB – Elgin Avenue
I will be voting for who ever is going to extend the east west bypass. I cant be the only one who notice the slow moving train of cars after countryside shopping plaza.
How about an electric tram service from the East into George Town. It can follow the main roads and all the people on it can wave at the traffic caught in jams?
I hate proposing this, as I am an expat, but wouldn’t it make sense to give permanent Cayman residents a free pass and charge expats a small fee for a day or weekly pass? We rode all over Bermuda on a bus and ferry pass on our last visit there, and we did not think ourselves ill used by the small pass fee.
Good to see they are trying something. Parking in GT is so bad it’s just not worth going there.
of course, it doesn’t actually take you to/from GT. Just around it. You still have to get there in the first place, so will have zero impact on parking. Now if it an onto GT from say Bodden Town and West Bay…. but its not about dealing with traffic and parking, its about hiring tour bus drovers whilst at the same time not offending the public bus operators. All its doing is putting extra traffic in the form of the buses on the road inside GT. Be cheaper and more efficient to just pay the tour bus operators to “work from home” like the “high risk” Post Office staff.
Sigh.
Honestly, there should be a lottery that entices people to take public transport. After it’s safe a reliable of course… but it could be a ticket into a lottery where those who take the bus 5 times are entered into a lottery and you win 5% of the fines accrued from motor vehicles.
What a great idea!
The only people using the service will be those who do not own their own form of transport LOL
Thanks Mac
Election time LOL
Can elections be just around the corner? Can’t beat a totally useless & unusable piece of government policy at election time eh?
It would be far more useful if outlying areas of GT were included, the current routes are too centralised. It would be a lot quicker to walk to the planned stops rather than hang around for the shuttle.
i use the one on miami beach..it works excelkent and am sure it will work great here! good job
I think this is way to complicated for the private sector to poperly utilise.
Are elections just around the corner ? Can’t beat a bit of useless ( but slightly eye catching) bullshit.
hmm.. not sure how I feel, but at least something is being tried, even though it feels like its years after the fact. If it proves useful, lets hope our government learns and adapts in order to expand and provide a good service for the islands. If it proves useless, lets hope they still learn and adapt.
Wow government are now thinking.
A hydrogen or electric free bus.
Oh no a diesel smoking old banger I give it three months before the idea is quietly shelved
you do REALIZE that electric vehicles cause more smog than diesel. Hippies don’t realize this. But it takes more energy to produce electricity with diesel as these generators run on. And I will keep it simple. One pound of diesel directly into a diesel vehicles uses less energy and creates less smog, than one pound of diesel in a generator who then has to convert that diesel into electricity. Conversion is never 1 to 1. You always lose energy converting one form into another form.
So for captain planet above. Going electric without going solar. Creates more pollution than straight to diesel. (wont even get into the by product pollution solar creates by creating solar panels, but that’s another lesson)
Just thought you “go electric” people understand that.
clearly you don’t suffer from asthma…lucky you.
This is just patently false. If anyone reads the comment above, please do some independent research.
Anywhere else it would be viable with a solar charging station. But Cayman so third world
Can this shuttle also go down walkers road to pick up students after school and take them to bus stops in town? That would help a ton for the ones that take public bus home.
Exactly what I was thinking. The bus is not tackling the biggest contributor to traffic. It should go all the way to UCCI. also where is one supposed to park to hop on this bus? The parking near the described stops is non existent so I’m not sure how useful it would be in practice (I drive to GT from prospect in heavy traffic to ditch my car “somewhere” so I can get the shuttle bus for the last mile of the morning traffic rodeo. I’m missing something)
funny how all these ideas and schemes coming to light now that election time round’ the corner *yawn*
So I hop on to go to the supermarket; then I hop back on and Load a grocery cart full ; then hop back off and unload all my groceries .
15 of us doing this all hours of the day. HA. HA….
Do either of routes include supermarkets?
ALT or Kirk Home Store? That would be useful
More than gray maybe
Good on them for trying something.
It is damning that this isn’t being organised through the Public Transport office.
I hope that they are able to get some good ridership data and refine/expand this over time. WB Road being the obvious expansion link. But that would be best done in coordination with the bus system.
Park and ride from the cruise ship drop off at Spotts would be used in the morning and evening and immediately take cars out at Spotts that drive into Town. People leave their cars at the cruise port then. Or…. use the cruise ship tenders to go from Spotts to George Town making it a pleasant boat ride past all the standing traffic into Town. Gives those gugs a wage while the ships aren’t here.
Or even starting further East, put some WiFi onboard so I can watch some videos, study or even work and I’m onboard.
That route looks like absolutely no help whatsover, as it won’t stop the number of travellers trying to get to GT, SMB, Cricket Square and Camana Bay from other districts.
Lol, to bus who around exactly? Ghosts?
Fix the damn dump Joey
Joey Who?
Joey Soon Be Gone.
a map would be helpful with times….
it would also be easy to track these buses with a smart phone app to see their exact location.
CNS: I checked on the map but apparently it is not on the website yet. I don’t know if it will include times.
thanks cns….don’t hold your breath on the website being updated….
The idea to run a similar shuttle bus up and down West Bay road using the middle lane (turning lane – which is mainly used for overtaking and innapropriate driving anyway) was proposed 20 years ago. Hop on, hop off and interior sponsored by local business advertising to supplement/cover cost. Could pick up/transfer from most exterior GTC point to WB road. Assists with all the people going back and forth at lunch time to alleviate traffic.
hopping on and off in that middle lane would be suicide. The number of high speed idiots racing up the middle lane isaane, and with the police rarey enforcing the law, more and more will start to do the same, as there are few consequences.
Unless you hit some one ofcourse, but then these people wouldn’t stop anyway, again as the sentence for leaving the scene of an accident is tiny and they rarely seem to find the culprits anyway.
Always seems to be Honda Accords as well, think they must be the bus drivers personal car of choice
Perhaps if drivers here had gotten used to the law that requires stopping in both directions when a school bus is stopped, it could be done…and even on pedestrian crossings where cars are supposed to stop anyways.
What happened to the bicycles?
the police started to charge cyclists with attempted suicide
attempted?