A holiday weekend packed with events will likely strain the island’s public transportation system far beyond capacity, according to taxi drivers.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Transport said yesterday that they discussed this weekend’s events with stakeholders for weeks to ensure that visitors have a positive experience and that the weekend is successful for taxis and minibuses.

However, the Bermuda Taxi Operators Association said that the raft of events around the island, combined with the presence of two cruise ships, will likely cause long waits for service.

“This includes from most neighbourhoods, hotels, the airport, the Dockyards and the beaches,” a spokesman said. “The entire island will be affected.”

A variety of events are scheduled to take place this weekend, including the King’s Birthday Parade in Hamilton, the Portuguese Festival in St George’s, several events in Dockyard and a series of events related to Bermuda Carnival festivities.

In addition, both the Carnival Venezia and the Liberty of the Seas are expected to arrive in port today.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Transport said that in order to accommodate the 9,100 cruise ship passengers along with the events across the island, efforts were made to bolster public transport options.

“The Department of Marine and Port Services ferry schedule will operate as usual on Saturday and Sunday, with the addition of a second large ferry, as required running each time slot to/from Hamilton on Saturday,” the spokeswoman said.

“On Monday, the blue route (Dockyard /Hamilton) and orange route (St George’s) ferries, excluding Green Route (Rockaway) will operate on the weekday schedule and the pink route will operate on the weekend holiday schedule.

“Marine and Ports will also have additional staff on the ground in Hamilton managing the foot traffic on Saturday.”

The spokeswoman added that the Department of Public Transportation will add four additional bus route No 7 linking Dockyard and Horseshoe Bay between 8.30am and 5.30pm, although some detours will take place because of the King’s Birthday Parade and the Bermuda Carnival events.

“It is an exciting weekend, and we want our visitors to have a pleasant experience using public transportation,” she said. “We hope the taxi and minibus operators have a successful and productive weekend.

“Ministry of Transport teams will monitor the weekend with traffic enforcement officers, supplementary public ferries and bus service, and our tourism information ambassadors will be stationed in Dockyard and at Horseshoe Bay.”

However, the BTOA said yesterday that the intense schedule would cause challenges for the public transportation system.

The BTOA spokesman said: “It is necessary to alert the public so that they know what to expect.

“It is unfortunate, but Government knew that this day was coming in addition to a repeat several times during the summer cruise schedule. The short-sightedness of the Government creates band-aid fixes but does not address the real problem.

“We all need improvements but the public bus system as well as the ferry system is inadequate to aid in the servicing required at the Dockyard with multiple mega ships in port.”

The spokesman said that events in Dockyard over the weekend may have been created in an attempt to keep cruise passengers in that area, but visitors would want to see more of the island.

He said an arrangement to allow the use of the NCL ferry to bring more passengers to St George’s could potentially help to address the issue, stating that St George’s had been “totally overlooked, disrespected and disregarded”.

The spokesman added that informal taxis are expected to be out in force over the weekend and warned that people should exercise caution when hiring any car other than a properly registered taxi.

“When the dust settles, as long as fingers are not pointed at the taxi industry as, with every challenge, we will do our best to ensure those needing transport receive it.

Public transportation scheduled are available at marineandports.bm and gov.bm.