The intriguing story surrounding the gradual revival of Jamaica’s rail service has taken another turn with news that a three-coach passenger train began operating on Monday from Charlemont in St Catherine via Linstead, Bog Walk to Spanish Town.

The rail route has come about because of the closure of the Bog Walk Gorge to facilitate a National Water Commission (NWC) pipe laying project expected to last a month.

On Monday, a report in this newspaper appeared to show up a mixed message. For while the Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC) was reported as saying that the Charlemont to Spanish Town service signalled phase one of the phased rail resumption, Transport Minister Mr Mike Henry seemed to be saying otherwise.

Indeed Mr Henry is reported as saying that Monday’s initiative “is in no way, shape, or form reflective of the pending official roll-out of the rail service, beginning in St Catherine and Clarendon”.

We sense that with the best will in the world, the Jamaica Railway Corporation and the Government are not yet altogether clear on their objectives and timelines going forward. Nor are we clear on the funding of the revived rail service which follows a 19-year break.

Readers may recall that back in April when a test run by the JRC triggered much excitement, this newspaper asked questions in this space relative to the funding of the railway resuscitation and its organisation going forward.

There were no specific answers given so far as we are aware. But to be fair to Mr Henry, during his Budget presentation in May he did say that the railway would be relying on its extensive assets to raise money — a departure from previous efforts to secure assistance from abroad, including India and China.

Said he, in part “…the answer to the intense public desire for the resuscitation of the passenger rail service laid more in leveraging the corporation’s wide asset base of well over $1 billion in land and fixtures”.

Mr Henry claimed then that in the lead-up to the much publicised test run in April “Intense vision and creativity were employed, in terms of using and leveraging the corporation’s asset base…”

Checks have suggested that the JRC has in fact been raising funds from the sale of lands and scrap metal deemed to be of no usable value. In fact, as we understand it, a foiled attempt to remove “historic” railway metal accoutrements from the town of Port Antonio in May was directly related to the drive by the JRC to raise funds.

As this newspaper understands it, upwards of $40 million has been raised by the JRC in the sale of scrap metal.

Thus far, monies raised from the sale of “assets” have apparently gone a far way in refitting rails and long unused, decades-old trains, for the phasing in of the revived service.

Obviously such funds will be running out. How then will the Government — bound as it is by IMF conditionalities — fund a sustained, safe and efficient rail service which hopefully will one day prove profitable?

Mr Henry needs to fully explain, and his new Opposition shadow, Dr Omar Davies, should be asking questions.