Former Transport Minister Terry Lister last night spoke of his regret at stepping down after a turbulent 12 months in office.“I am disappointed that in April 2013, when the Norwegian Breakaway comes in, that I won’t be standing there as Minister or, for that matter, coming down with the ship from New York,” Mr Lister said. “I would have really liked that.”Getting the cruise company to deploy the Breakaway to Bermuda was one of the high points of an often thankless job as the head of a Ministry beset by budget cuts, he said.“They could have given that to any route, but they gave it to Bermuda,” Mr Lister said. “And even then, I had to go and sell it to the Cabinet.”A casualty of Premier Paula Cox’s Cabinet shuffle, Mr Lister said he “wasn’t expecting it at all” when his job went to former Public Works Minister Derrick Burgess.Looking back on a year’s work, he added: “All jobs are tough. The challenge being Transport Minister presents is it’s very public. Everything we do is right out there for everyone to see. When it goes right, they don’t see it, and when it goes wrong, it’s a major crisis for everybody.”The toughest side of the job was the challenge to meet budget cuts, he said.“We were challenged to provide all the services we wanted to do. From very early in the fiscal year, we were compelled to cut services in buses.”With no funding for overtime, and buses plagued with mechanical difficulties, the fleet is struggling back to strength, Mr Lister added.“I’m happy to say that the magic number of buses out on a day is 35, and we have gotten into the lower thirties. A maintenance schedule is being developed at my insistence.“Not everything can be done. The schedule will show that to do all the work in time, we will require overtime.”Saying he has not yet discussed the transition with Mr Burgess, Mr Lister spoke of the difficulty in following important transport-related tasks down the tiers of Government, to ensure things got done.He said he was especially gratified to have stewarded Bermuda’s recent capture of the registration for Cunard Line ships.Officials from the company, who visited the Island in August, were pleased to see that he could bid Cabinet for two extra senior officials for the Department of Marine Administration, he said.Mr Lister was also pleased to work on developing a Taxi Commission, and burying the hatchet after Government’s long and fractious relationship with drivers.“The industry was at war with former Ministers,” he said. “One belief was that Government didn’t want them involved in the cruise ship business. I met with taxi drivers last November and told them I wanted to be part of the process. The result was that taxi drivers who served Dockyard had a beautiful year in business.”He said he expected the Taxi Commission to be up and running by the year’s end.Mr Lister expressed surprise at the controversy of his trip to Florida this summer to watch the last take-off of the space shuttle Atlantis, at the end of a programme that forged close ties between Bermuda and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration.“What was so silly about the flak I got about that was that I was not the first to go,” Mr Lister said. “Other Ministers have gone in earlier times. There were all sorts of officials from all over the world attending.”Thrilled at his chance to represent Bermuda at a historic event, Mr Lister said he found it “very disappointing” to be targeted for criticism.Along with Estates Minister Neletha Butterfield, whose place is taken by former Justice Minister Michael Scott, Mr Lister is now faced with a sharp change in pace.“I will continue to carry the ball as a backbencher, and do my part to ensure that the party is successful in the next election,” he said.