Three recent actions by the Jamaica Urban Transport Company (JUTC) have me puzzled.

First, JUTC ran ‘tests’ of bus lanes on a heavily congested stretch of road leading into Kingston, and now has in place a three-month trial of that same test. Unlike many other bus lane restrictions found worldwide, that proposed by JUTC will be for their buses only, not all buses or all public transport. JUTC is a public corporation which is loss-making. But, many other private buses and taxis operate and move large amount of passengers. So, if the logic is that ‘people movers’ should get priority, then why give the privilege to JUTC only? I don’t have a good answer to that question and suspect there isn’t one. JUTC called the tests ‘a success’ as their buses moved an additional 6,000 passengers during the three-hour test run on October 24. But judging from other comments heard on various media, things were a nightmare for other road users. But, maybe they are not part of the consideration.

Second, JUTC has decided to end the practice of free transfers on November 10. The changes will affect 15 routes. JUTC says it loses between up to $1 million per day. The scheme was introduced to encourage use of JUTC buses. I have no idea what cost-benefit studies were done before introducing it, but, logically, it had to be a financial loss-maker. However, the extent of the losses indicate that free transfers have succeeded, so why penalise passengers by making them pay for what they were ‘enticed to do’ by making it free? That shouldn’t be the reason to stop it. Had JUTC begun by offering the free transfers on a short-term experimental basis, the scheme might have failed. But, that wasn’t the deal. JUTC should have anticipated the losses and, if they were going to be a problem, then had offsetting measures ready to ensure that the overall deficit didn’t worsen. As passengers have been quick to point out, the end of free transfers will mean a likely doubling in fares and on top of passengers having to absorb the recent 25 per cent increase.

Third, JUTC has identified several problems with staff stealing from the company, namely ticket scams. JUTC says these instances include: sale of concessionary tickets to adult passengers, resale of old tickets, sale of test tickets and sale of blank tickets, photocopied tickets and tickets with incorrect times and routes. Perhaps, I missed it, but what has been, or is being, done to correct these internal problems?

JUTC is not endearing itself to the general public. It is not being fair to its passengers, many of whom are captive.

Dennis Jones

dennisgjones@gmail.com