All Shops in Transport Centre to Be Opened by June

General Manager of the Half-Way Tree Transport Centre, Victor Green has disclosed that all the shops in the centre will be opened by the end of June.”Two more (shops) will be coming on stream and by the end of June, all the shops will be opened,” he said.
Mr. Green, who was speaking at a recent JIS ‘Think Tank’, at the head office at 58A Half-Way Tree Road, pointed out that the concessionaires are being given time to equip the shops and as such the opening process has been delayed. The renting of the shops is a major source of revenue for the centre and according to Mr. Green, “we need to have them operating because we need the income.”
The Transport Centre has a total of 17 commercial shops, including a mini mart, an internet/document centre, pharmacy, music store and a money transfer and remittance shop.
While there have been no infrastructural changes to the centre, Mr. Green revealed that as part of the plan to provide a safe and secure environment for the commuters, guard rails would be added at the entrances and exits of the centre. “We’re looking at putting in guard rails to channel people to the pedestrian crossing, because we find that a lot of people just step off into the roadways,” he noted.
Mr. Green, who is responsible for the security and maintenance of the centre, also addressed the issue of the elevator which is not in operation. He said that while this is a challenge, he has been meeting with the Belgian contractors, who constructed the centre, to deal with the matter. He pointed out that the main reason for equipping the centre with an elevator was to facilitate the disabled and the elderly.
He said that additional measures have been put in place to assist these commuters, with one being the reassignment of buses downstairs, which reduces the need to walk long distances.
In the meantime, Mr. Green said he is pleased with the transformation in the culture of the commuters. “It’s amazing now to see the bus roll in and the passengers are now lining up, even without a security guard being there. It’s not 100 percent there, but it’s catching on,” he said. He is therefore appealing to the general public, especially the students, to keep it up and also ensure that the centre is kept clean.
He pointed out that there is scope for the space designated as the food court, to be rented. “In the future, if there are opportunities for people to use the space designated for the food court, once it is to the benefit of the general public, then they will be accommodated,” he said, before the food court comes on stream.
The Half-Way Tree Transport Centre, which opened on January 12, is a modern, state-of-the-art bus terminus and is the first of its kind in the Caribbean.