operation rather than as an essential part of a well-run Country. Too often transportation has been planned simply to suit Bermudians.

Transportation is also a very vital part of Bermuda's service to visitors.

Bermuda's visitors cannot enjoy Bermuda unless they can get around with reasonable comfort at a sensible price. We need the ability to move people so that their spending is spread around the community. Right now we are taking the risk of confining visitors to their hotels.

We have failed for years to face the fact that the roads are uncomfortable for locals and doubly uncomfortable for visitors who are unfamiliar with the left side of the road or with the chaos of mopeds, pedal cycles, trucks, vans, cars and joggers all scrambling for position on overcrowded narrow roads.

The Government has carried on regardless because it has been unwilling to confront voters with hard choices. It has also made its decisions from the comfort of private cars and too often from the comfort of a second GP car paid for by the people who are uncomfortable on the roads. As a result, we have a transportation system that served us quite well in about 1950.

Transportation is now a great problem for visitors, many of whom find what we provide inconvenient and consider the prices outlandish. They are no longer comfortable on rented mopeds, especially at night. Yet we do not give much consideration to how they get about at night except by taxi. Regular taxi use is now out of the price range of most visitors.

A travel writer recently complained to us about a $28 return taxi fare from Ariel Sands to the Southampton Princess to eat dinner at the Whaler Inn. He said that is not a fare visitors will pay without resistance nor is it one they will pay often during a vacation. Yet, visitors should be expected to go out to dinner. Clearly if taxi prices go up, too many cars will be empty. It seems to us that the solution to giving taxi drivers a good living is more trips generated by more attractive fares.

There are far too many visitor complaints about rude and unhelpful bus drivers and the exact change fares are difficult. Tokens are available but not every visitor knows that and a couple travelling from St. George's to Hamilton is unlikely to have $8 in coins. We should be making their holiday more comfortable, not more difficult. There are solutions to both the personnel and the change problems.

Right now Government restricts transportation to protect taxis yet it is clear that hotels should be encouraged to provide convenient transportation for their guests, hopefully free or at a reasonable cost. It is almost unbelievable that there is no service, except by water, between the two Princess Hotels. We have long advocated a gitney train along South Shore Road from the Harmony Club to Church Bay servicing the hotels and the beaches.

Hotels should be allowed to provide service to and from the Airport, to the beach and to Hamilton for shopping and for the dine around programme. The rule should be convenient access for visitors.

Solutions will come in time because they must. It would be best for Bermuda to look for solutions now before there are too few visitors to worry about. There is a crisis in tourism and this is the time for some hard truth.