HUNDREDS of commuters were left stranded yesterday as buses and taxis plying several routes were either too slow in coming or withdrew their services as a result of Nomination Day activities.

Persons travelling to Spanish Town and St Thomas were severely affected as they were forced to wait at bus stops for hours.

"Is two hours now I left work and I am still standing here, no bus and no robot taxi," one Courts worker complained.
One Spanish Town resident, who relies on the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) service from Kingston to Spanish Town, said she and a few co-workers had to travel to Portmore in a minibus, which they rarely do, in order to get a transport to their final destination.

Meanwhile, Donald Swaby, a JUTC bus driver, said that passengers would indeed be affected as fewer buses were on the roads.

"Normally at this time (4:00 pm) you would find more buses on this route (32), but not many are here now," he admitted, pointing to the downtown to Spanish Town bus bay that stood empty of buses though crammed with anxious commuters.

Another bus driver, who asked not to be named, was quick to point out that fewer buses were in operation as some were reserved to transport people to last night's People's National Party (PNP) rally at the Portia Simpson Miller Square in Kingston.

But according to Joan Barnett, marketing and communications manager at the JUTC, buses that operate in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region, including Portmore, had to be re-routed as a result of the political meeting.

She explained that buses were unavoidably delayed in reaching their stations due to heavy traffic throughout the course of the day and not because of a reduced number of buses on the road.

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