KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – Minister of Transport and Mining, Mike Henry, will be revisiting the rural-urban transport plan, with a view to implementing measures, such as colour coding of public passenger vehicles, issuing parish licence plates and standardising the fare structure.

In an interview with JIS News, Minister Henry explained that the government would be rationalising the rural urban transport system and distributing the real economic costs to all users of public transport across the island.

“Under the subsidy approach, you are not running transport at the real cost, so you are robbing the man at the lower end of the economic level the chance to grow, and all of the taxpayers across the country are subsidising fares for just one million passengers,” he said.

“The reality is that you must grow the economy and develop it, so if you have a balanced fare structure across the country, then we would be paying the real cost of travel,” he added.

According to Minister Henry, the net effect of creating equity in fare payment across the island could be as much as the equivalent of putting $600 in the pocket of some individuals every day.

The minister said he is also looking at raising the level of the feeder systems into the major routes, which needs to be done in conjunction with the railway, which he would seek to revive.

He added that a system of structuring and colour coding taxis for ease of identification and access was also coming, and this would bring Jamaica in line with other countries, recognising that colour coding of ground transportation is an international standard.