Tensions Mount Between Bexon and Ciceron Bus Operators over Rights to OKEU Route

Route 5F Ciceron bus operators are livid as they continue to face competition from Route 2A Bexon bus operators over the right to collect passengers at the OKEU Hospital. This call from the bus operators comes after an August 2024 decision by the Department of Transport to hand the Ciceron route exclusive rights over passengers at OKEU inbound for Castries.

Public Relations Officer of the Ciceron Minibus Association, Anthony Biscette, noted the issues faced by members of his association when trying to ply the OKEU route.

According to him, Bexon bus drivers are only allowed to drop passengers near the hospital while en route to Castries.

“We had a meeting with the ministry sometime last year, inviting the Bexon president to that meeting and that’s where the transport officer let them know they have no right to come up to the hospital. The only time they can come to the hospital if you’re leaving Bexon and somebody is coming to the hospital, it’s okay. But you’re only supposed to drop off and go back to town. You’re not supposed to be plying the route which is picking up passengers and that’s what they do,” he explained.

Biscette complained that despite these regulations from the Department, some Bexon bus operators come up to the hospital, drop passengers off, and collect passengers to bring them to Castries. Oftentimes, he says, passengers would disembark Ciceron buses currently parked and waiting to full to board a passing Bexon bus.

“Sometimes they come up here empty and offload our members. They just come and say “Castries, Castries” and passengers leave the bus and board the Bexon bus. That’s a big problem,” he said.

Biscette adds that the government should intervene before the situation escalates: “So we want the ministry to call them back into a meeting and have something happen – if they have to discipline them or whatever it takes. But right now, what they’re doing is illegal.”

Biscette suggests that a traffic officer should be deployed near the hospital to prevent Bexon bus operators from pirating the OKEU route: “I wish they would speak to the police, have them here probably for a month or two to make sure they don’t come in and do that because they’re going to have a big problem. They might have a fight, they might have something happening because we are really upset.”

This contention between Bexon and Ciceron bus operators has been longstanding since the early 2010s. Due to the opening of the hospital, both bus associations have tried to gain exclusive rights to collect passengers.