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Here's what we found out:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
At around 10 this morning, we met the minister responsible for transport at the Novelo's Bus Terminal. Now, like all employees who are super-vigilant when the boss is around, the Terminal Management Unit made sure that all the buses left the terminal without standees.

But sure enough, we caught a bus driver breaking the traffic rules while carrying an over-full bus, which led us to the whole point of today's operation:

Hon. Edmund "Clear the Land" Castro - Minister of State, Transport
"As the new minister responsible for transport I need to see firsthand what's going on and what the commuters are going through on all the routes basically."

But, the Transport Minister has done his research, and he has already discovered the underlying problem with the current system.

Hon. Edmund "Clear the Land" Castro
"A big part of the problem is enforcement, so what we are trying to do is to get a firsthand view as to what is going on - one and two, the same bus owners and bus operators who are daily with the situation whereby - they have a slot, for example if they have 200 passengers at the terminal - they have lots of games going on. They would full their bus in the terminal and some get cagey and put buckets in the isle so that everybody leaving the terminal appears to be seated. The rest basically just leave the terminal and have a whole set of other persons jumping on the bus on the bridge in Pound Yard. That same operator should provide an additional bus to take those commuters home because that operator has the slot to move those people within that two hour period."

And, to try to cut costs of fuel, according to Castro, bus owners allowed the buses to become overcrowded, instead of sending secondary backups to accommodate the passengers.

Hon. Edmund "Clear the Land" Castro
"They are not complying with us d they are complaining that they don't have enough passengers. Since if you notice we were there, the next bus schedule run out of the terminal was supposed to be at 11 o' clock but by 10:30, the 10:30 bus had an additional crowd that need to be move, so we had to ask them - this is your spot, you put in an additional bus to take this bus load of people rather than wait until 11 o' clock. By the time that bus left at 10:45 there were already almost a half bus load waiting for the 11 o' clock bus. But what they would have normally done was to compile both the 75 persons there and another 25 there so that they can move the people. That is wrong, they need to help us and work with us."

Although transport system is currently not working properly, Castro has faith in it if the bus owners actually comply:

Hon. Edmund "Clear the Land" Castro
"I think the slot system could work, the slot system should work but we need the cooperation of the bus operators because like what I explain earlier it makes no sense for the bus operator that has a two hour slot period that needs to move 200 people and only providing one bus. We have all these peoples here at the roundabout waiting for bus to go home."

So, the bus operators must get with the program to accommodate all the passengers. But, that causes the operators to have to spend extra on gas when sending a bus one way, full, but returning it comes back empty.

We asked Castro about that cost, and he gave us a hardline response:

Hon. Edmund "Clear the Land" Castro
"I don't think that's a problem. If they can't manage their bus line then they should be out of the bus business, plain and simple. If you have a bus load going north and you are worrying about a bus load or half a bus load coming back then obviously this business is not for you. But you are in the business of moving people commuting back and forth then you should be prepared within your slot allotted to you to get the people back and forth to work on time and safely. It makes no sense to cram 100 persons on a bus. The time for that has already pass."

Castro says he plans to deal with all the bus runs throughout the country very soon. After all, bus operators' licenses must be renewed very soon:

Hon. Edmund "Clear the Land" Castro
"We will be doing from Belmopan back to Belize City in the rush hour. We plan to deal with the rush hour from Orange Walk to Belize City and also in the evening run from Belize City going up north."

According to the Minister, the newly licensed bus owners will soon have to follow a ticketing system for all their runs. It is part of his attempt to combat over-crowding on the bus.