Dear Editor,

The Transport Authority uses this medium to respond to an article published in the Jamaica Observer of Tuesday, August 25, 2015, entitled ‘Transport operators worried about possible eviction from Darling Street Bus Park’, which refers to a planned relocation of rural bus operators from the KSAC Rural Bus Terminus to the Downtown Municipal Transport Centre, Water Lane, to facilitate the placement of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) at the aforementioned facility.

The Transport Authority is mandated by law to monitor, regulate and enforce the Transport Authority and Road Traffic Acts and all relevant regulations to ensure efficient, safe and reliable public land transport operations. As part of this process, the Transport Authority is continually developing and improving the systems to ensure smooth flow of public land transportation and the safety of passengers.

The Transport Authority refutes the claim by JATOO that “there is a plan to put them [JUTC] down Water Lane” as there has never been a plan (since the establishment of the Downtown Municipal Transport Centre) to place JUTC buses at the KSAC Rural Bus Terminus. People familiar with the KSAC Rural Bus Terminus will admit that the facility is too small to facilitate access and exit by the coaches operated by the JUTC.

As it relates to the claim that there is a plan to “get rid of route taxis” in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR), the authority must underscore that there is no such plan by the Authority; however anyone found to be operating public transportation in breach of the laws and/or operating in contravention of the road licence will be sanctioned by the Authority in keeping with the legal framework.

The Transport Authority anticipates that the provision of the facts relating to the plans for public transportation in the KMTR will help to ease the growing discontent of rural bus operators, and that this response will be given similar prominence as the article published in the newspaper.

Donald Foster, JP

Managing Director

Transport Authority