KINGSTON, jamaica —  The Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) has received authorsation from the Ministry of Transport Works and Housing to extend the trial period of the Mandela Highway Bus Lane for another three months from February 1 to April 30 2014.

Managing Director of the JUTC, Colin Campbell, requested that the project, which was going through a three-month trial period from November 2013 to January 2014, be extended under the same conditions.

“The JUTC is pleased to report that the temporary JUTC Bus Lane has been a success. It is of note that Spanish Town has now been ranked the highest revenue earner of the three depots,” said Campbell.

According to Campbell, with the introduction of the bus lane on November 1, 2013, the JUTC transported 718,610 passengers compared with 686, 483 in October 2013. 

The passenger load dropped in December because of the school break but it did not affect revenue intake which showed an improvement over November, Campbell said.

JUTC prohects that 747,000 paseengers will be moved in  Jamuary 2014.

The JUTC managing director said that revenue earned during the three-month trial period of the Mandela Highway Bus Lane showed an increase of $1 mllion in November over October, $1 million in December over November and is projected to show an increase also of approx $1 million in January 2014 over the previous month.

The ease of traffic congestion created by the bus lane also saw the JUTC saving on fuel consumption by five percent.

To accommodate the bus lane, the westbound dual carriageway has been converted to two-way traffic from Caymanas Bay to Plantation Heights between 6:00 am and 8:00 am on weekdays.