Dear Editor,

I write in regards to the delays that passengers have to face taking the Jamaica Urban Transit Company buses on a daily basis, with no remorse from this company towards passengers traversing to and from Portmore, and who use this means of transportation overall.

Firstly, I must say that there is no regulation in regards to the number four buses that ply the route Gregory Park to Cross Roads, via downtown Kingston. There is one that has a schedule of leaving Cross Roads in the evenings at 5:30, however, I must say the driver and conductress work this bus when and how they feel like. Sometimes this bus leaves at 5:20 pm, leaving regular passengers to find other means of transportation to get home from work after a hectic day. If it rains, even lightly, this bus doesn’t work and a replacement is not sent. The reason for that is it is an articulated bus and the accordion middle section is all torn up and the bus company finds it hard to fix it. However, this is no excuse for not sending a replacement. JUTC needs to do better, and they were just granted a fare increase for this sloppy service.

On Thursday, October 10, 2013 it rained, however it stopped about 4:20 pm. Passengers went to the loading dock in Cross Roads, to get the number four bus which did not come. Some of us passengers decided to go downtown to take the number 12 or number three bus to get home instead. It was a disgrace. We had to wait one hour to get either one of those JUTC buses. From 6:00 pm we were standing at the bus stop for either buses and it came after 7:00 pm before a number 12 bus, leaving passengers that are taking the number three bus to wait even longer.

Something needs to be done to this bus system. The management of these drivers and supervisors needs some intervention to improve the schedule. Moreover, they are also lacking customer service skills towards the elderly and disabled.

I urge the transport minister to take a look into the JUTC operations or else there will be more robots on the road tapping into the profit potential of the bus company, causing them to be continuously operating at a loss.

Melody Smith

smelody220@yahoo.com