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Terry Lister –a clarification

A story on September 28, 2011, entitled ‘Minister admits there are ‘huge gaps’ in bus service due to repairs’ contained a number of errors.The use of quotation marks around ‘huge gaps’ in the headline suggested that Transport Minister Terry Lister had used those words. We are happy to clarify that he did not state this.We also stated that ‘Government looks set to pay thousands of dollars for an overseas mechanic to come to Bermuda’. Although the Minister said they were considering bringing in a mechanic from Germany, we accept he did not say it would cost thousands of dollars.We also stated there are 119 buses and are happy to clarify that the number is 121. We did ask for clarification over this number at the time of writing the story, but did not receive any.The story also refers to huge gaps in the service. We are happy to state that the Minister did not use this phrase.Our story stated that ‘Bermuda’s timetable can only operate with a maximum of 35 buses off the road’. We accept the Minister did not say this, but our information was drawn from previous statements where the Minister said there should be only 35 buses off the road. The Budget Book also states that only 18 buses should be off at any one time.Our story referred to the shortage of buses having “a significant impact” and some schools have expressed concern about children turning up late.In response to a question about a significant impact on Whitney Institute, the Minister said: “Well, we’ve had that issue in some of our schools and obviously we are very concerned about it and we don’t wish for that to continue but it does come down to the allocation.”We accept he did not say ‘significant impact’.Our story also said a new bus timetable had not been updated since 1998. We accept the Minister said: “Our bus system is running off a schedule that was put in place in, I think, 2001 or 2002.”