COMMUTERS have given mixed reactions to the Jamaica Urban Transit Company’s (JUTC) plan to scrap its ‘pay for anyone’ facility by concession cardholders, as part of plans to clampdown on revenue loss.

The measure, which takes effect today, was last week described by many commuters as wrong and unfair, while there were few who did not have a problem with it. Concession cards are given to schoolchildren in uniform, the elderly and the disabled.

“You will not be able to use your concession card to pay for another concession passenger, so a student at school will not be able to pay for a friend; your friend must have his or her own card,” marketing and communications manager at the JUTC Clinton Clarke told the Jamaica Observer.

Cutie Salmon Hansen, a JUTC dispatcher, told the Observer that the decision was taken to curb the abuse of the concession cards.

She explained that some adults use their children’s concession cards to pay their fares and that students have also used their cards to purchase bus tickets for adults, while others cheat the system by giving the bus tickets to their friends after they have used them to ride the bus.

“They come up to the top of the bus and push the ticket through the window to their friends and then when the inspector comes on the bus and find commuters without tickets they think the drivers are stealing the money when that is not so,” said Salmon Hansen. The JUTC, she said, has been losing a significant amount of revenue because of the cheating.

A number of commuters were, however, unhappy with the decision and expressed their disapproval when

the Jamaica Observer visited the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre last Thursday.

“I don’t think it is fair; suppose you are going somewhere and your friend doesn’t have a smart card because they don’t normally travel on the bus?” asked Shienne Larman, student of Alpha Academy.

“It’s unfair, it’s wrong; I should be able to pay for my friend with my card as it is the same fare that we are paying,” said Brianna Johnson, also a student of Alpha.

“That shouldn’t be because all kids pay the same fare,” said Camille Chanteloupe, an adult commuter.

The view was the same for senior citizen Pricecess Jenkings, who said she was not allowed to use her concession card to pay the fare of her eight-year-old granddaughter while on her way to church recently.

“It wrong; a eight-year-old that, a baby that; but rule a rule…,” said the senior citizen as she awaited a bus at the transport centre.

Robert McCurdy, who was waiting for his sister-in-law to top up his concession card, was also against plans to stop the pay for anyone facility.

However, there was at least one student who had no problem with the JUTC’s plan go scrap the facility.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it; based on what is happening I think it is a fair decision,” said Chelica Haughton, who attends Camperdown High.

The JUTC also announced last week that it would be enforcing its no eating, drinking, vending and preaching ban on the buses.

Additionally, no pets, smoking, begging, or soliciting as well as inappropriate sexual behaviour will be allowed on the state-owned public passenger buses.

“Passengers who continue to eat and drink in the buses put additional pressure on the company’s resources to keep the buses clean and free of pests. At the same time, vending on the buses encourages eating and drinking [among passengers],” said the bus company.

The ban on eating, drinking and preaching was, for the most part, welcomed by commuters who spoke with the Observer.

One senior citizen said beggars should perhaps be given a chance since they were mostly disabled people who were unable to adequately support themselves. But he was happy about putting an end to the preaching on the bus.

“The preaching can stop; it nuh necessary as it is a profiteering thing. God say man must go out and preach the gospel but some of them a live off a it,” he said.