St. John — 8:00 a.m. — 2:00 p.m.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nAmericans with Disabilities Act (ADA) transit unit will continue its regular operation, the release added.<\/p>\n
The law, sponsored by Senator Marvin Blyden,\u00a0had\u00a0faced opposition from senators who questioned the bill\u2019s necessity, and from Public Works Commissioner Gustav James, who said while the implementation of VITRAN bus runs on weekends and holidays was a good idea, funding for the initiative would be problematic because of the fiscal challenges the territory is currently facing.<\/p>\n
James said the weekend and holiday service would further impact the operation\u2019s bottom line as seniors travel free of charge, however it\u2019s a hurdle he\u2019d like DPW to overcome through subsidies provided by the federal government. James also said that while DPW had not been able to adequately assess the added cost of the weekend and holiday service because it would be based on the amount of runs and routes DPW approves, an assessment would be carried out before the extra services start.<\/p>\n
To do so, lawmakers here suggested implementing a test run in this district, however Sen. Novelle Francis, St. Croix Democrat, bucked.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my colleagues suggested that we try a trial route in the district of St. Thomas\/St. John, [but] I want to say that any trial being done should be done in all three islands because certainly St. Croix is hurting, and they depend on the VITRAN buses a lot as well. We have the highest unemployment over there and people are reliant on VITRAN, so let\u2019s try the entire Virgin Islands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Kurt Vialet questioned the measure\u2019s viability, thinking aloud whether it would impede DPW as it relates to flexibility in relation to hours and holiday runs. He also questioned whether the program could be implemented without legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need to legislate [the VITRAN weekend service] because it\u2019s part of our intentions,\u201d James said. \u201cThe fact that it\u2019s legislated would make it mandatory and therefore will put some burden on [the Senate] in the sense that you would then be required to work with us to make it happen. [And] in the sense that we may need to come back and say we need additional funds.\u201d<\/p>\n
James added that while the legislation mandates weekends and holidays, it also says DPW can determine its schedule, so while there may not be a day that there would be no service, \u201csay we run two, three or tens trips, that\u2019s apparently within our purview.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ST. THOMAS — The Department of Public Works has announced through a press release issued by Government House today that the territory’s VITRAN operations will commence weekend services starting this Saturday. The inaugural ride will be provided free of charge in celebration of the recommencement, according to the release. The announcement follows Governor Kenneth Mapp’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[228,11,191,2474,147],"tags":[121,3873],"yoast_head":"\n
VITRAN Weekend Services Kick Off This Saturday - V.I. Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ST. THOMAS -- The Department of Public Works has announced through a press release issued by Government House today that the territory's VITRAN....\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=31435\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ernice Gilbert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=31435\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=31435\",\"name\":\"VITRAN Weekend Services Kick Off This Saturday - V.I. Consortium\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-16T18:59:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-11-16T19:04:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51\"},\"description\":\"ST. THOMAS -- The Department of Public Works has announced through a press release issued by Government House today that the territory's VITRAN....\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=31435#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=31435\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=31435#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"VITRAN Weekend Services Kick Off This Saturday\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/\",\"name\":\"V.I. Consortium\",\"description\":\"Uniting the Caribbean\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51\",\"name\":\"Ernice Gilbert\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ernice Gilbert\"},\"description\":\"I wear many hats, I suppose, but the one which fits me best would be journalism, second to that would be radio personality, thirdly singer\/songwriter and down the line. I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"VITRAN Weekend Services Kick Off This Saturday - V.I. Consortium","description":"ST. THOMAS -- The Department of Public Works has announced through a press release issued by Government House today that the territory's VITRAN....","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=31435","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ernice Gilbert","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=31435","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=31435","name":"VITRAN Weekend Services Kick Off This Saturday - V.I. Consortium","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-11-16T18:59:36+00:00","dateModified":"2015-11-16T19:04:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51"},"description":"ST. THOMAS -- The Department of Public Works has announced through a press release issued by Government House today that the territory's VITRAN....","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=31435#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=31435"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=31435#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"VITRAN Weekend Services Kick Off This Saturday"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/","name":"V.I. Consortium","description":"Uniting the Caribbean","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d227a4a2478d096447391f7d05afcb51","name":"Ernice Gilbert","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e9900b9c4e146fd5fb7b811fb4a06e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ernice Gilbert"},"description":"I wear many hats, I suppose, but the one which fits me best would be journalism, second to that would be radio personality, thirdly singer\/songwriter and down the line. I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.","sameAs":["http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/"],"url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31435"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}