PROVISIONS are being put in place to accommodate commuters should maxi taxi and taxi drivers carry out their strike action tomorrow.

This according to Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner while addressing members of the media at the Ministry' head office at the Corner of London and Richmond Streets, Port of Spain yesterday.

Passengers are advised to purchase their tickets in advance to use the bus service.

"It is a bit sad that the Maxi Taxi Association, the route two, the red band maxis have sought this measure to inconvenience the travelling public, they say, because they want to have a meeting with me. (Even though) I am one of the most accessible persons with who one can speak," he said.

In December, president of the Route Two Maxi Association, Linus Philip, said that all the routes will be participating in the strike and indicated that the planned action was in direct response to Warner's decision to move ahead with plans to legalise PH taxi drivers.

However, at the press conference yesterday, Warner said he was not going to back down on his decision to legalise PH drivers and added that if the Maxi Taxi drivers wanted to withhold their services, the Ministry was fully prepared to deal with it.

"I was able to speak to my colleague, the Minister of National Security, Brigadier John Sandy and got his approval and that from the Commissioner of Police, Dwayne Gibbs, that we shall raise the restrictions on the Priority Bus Route on Wednesday".

"Normally we have restrictions from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. and from 8.30 a.m. to 3 p.m. once your car has three persons inclusive of the driver but on Wednesday we are saying you can drive with three persons inclusive of the driver from 4 a.m. to midnight unlimited. There is no break and...that is a move to supplement what is being done by the (Public Transport Service Corporation) PTSC," he said.

Asked whether he thought the free pass on the Priority Bus Route would cause a traffic pile up, Warner said since the Red Band Maxis would not there, the road would be clear.

"And hopefully, I want to say to the travelling public, if after all these measures they are still inconvenienced they have our sincere apologies but we are doing everything so as to minimize the inconvenience commuters will have to suffer," he said.

Chairman of the PTSC board, Devant Maharaj said 100 buses with "low ridership" will be "re-routed" from the Southern and Central areas to accommodate the anticipated transportation shortage tomorrow.

"There will be a heavy bus turnout from 5 o'clock in the morning in anticipation of the normal drive time traffic and again a heavy bus turnout will be at 4 p.m. in the afternoon to accommodate the movement of people from Port of Spain up to Arima".

President of the National Infrastructure Development Company (NIDCO), Dr Carson Charles said the Water Taxis, which operate from San Fernando to Port of Spain will also be available to pick up the slack.

He said as the resource is currently underutilized, people are welcomed to use it tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Maharaj has said that the PTSC is in talks with Parliamentary representatives along with other stakeholders in rural areas to come up with a plan to deal with the issue of poor transportation.

"We have written every single Member of Parliament, we have written every single denominational board in Trinidad and Tobago to send to us the transportation requirements in their respective area so that we could develop a comprehensive transportation plan for PTSC that would try and address some of their urgent needs," he said.