FOUR years after the Government’s attempt to reintroduce the rail service ground to a halt, art collector and Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC) Chairman Joseph A Matalon says that the corporation is looking to revive routes from Montego Bay to Kingston in a push to re-enter the tourism sector.

According to Matalon, the corporation’s enterprise team hopes to make recommendations to the Cabinet early January.

He made the revelation at the launch of the space art initiative in downtown Kingston on Saturday, December 5.

The JRC chair stated that there were two plans being considered: Plan A, which is “to divest the entire corporation” and Plan B, which is the “break-up strategy”.

He recalled that trains had previously transported tourists from Montego Bay to Appleton Estate. Factoring the current status of the rail system, Matalon estimated that the current lines could facilitate four such trips daily.

“There are a number of stops along [the route]… there are some caves for people who like to visit caves,” he said, adding that the plan includes reinstating the dormant handcraft post along the route. The post, he suggested, should become a standalone, self-sustaining entity. “We have done the business plan and that [handcraft] is very viable,” Matalon said.

He further stated that bauxite companies are supportive of the continuation of the railway and are keen to use the trains in lieu of trucks — which are their mainstay.

The Government of Jamaica’s proposal currently has three phases. The first, the Rum Train; the second, the bauxite area to Spanish Town; and the third, Spanish Town to Kingston.

Matalon singled out squatting as a serious impediment to the reintroduction of train travel. “We do not have a definitive Government position on squatting,” he said, however he admitted that the Government has agreed to remove the squatters.

He stated that this task is a challenging undertaking, since it is costly and requires that the Government observes specific United Nations conventions regarding human rights.

One incentive to reinstating the railway system, the chairman said, was the condition of the undercarriages of the rum trains. “An English consultant informed us that the undercarriages are in excellent condition. A smart investor could take those undercarriages, remove the super structure… replace them with bamboo coaches to attract tourists,” he said.

Matalon said that the Appleton Estate to Montego Bay route could take approximately four hours — dependent on the duration of stops along the way. A non-stop trip, he said, should run a little over two-and-a-half hours.

“What we have examined in the model for the divestment are two types of trips,” he said, and explained that there will be a trip designed for stopover and one for non-stopover visitors. The trip packaged for cruise visitors would be shorter in order to sync with the arrival and departure times of the vessels, returning in time for re-boarding. The trip geared toward stopover visitors would have a longer run time.

There are also environment and social benefits which the Government would reap. He stressed, however, that it wasn’t necessarily economically viable for a potential investor. “For a divestment to take place it should have a dollar value to the investing company,” he said.

The chairman noted that the JRC will have to operate within the guidelines of the National Environment and Planning Agency.

Matalon said that the corporation intends to spearhead the preservation of the railway infrastructure, spanning from Montego Bay to Kingston. “An undisturbed route from Kingston to Montego Bay for buses, bicycling and jogging is another thing that has been discussed, but we are not at that stage yet regarding those amenities.”

He said that the physical line, on the other hand, may prove to be more challenging to protect. “If you leave the [train] line in Jamaica, it goes on a boat,” he pointed out in reference to the scrap metal trade.

He added that any subsidiser attached to the divestment of the railway system is required to agree to terms regarding the usage of their leg of the infrastructure by other train operators for various purposes.

The railway system was first introduced to Jamaica in the mid-1800s. It stopped operating in the early 1990s. In 2011 it was revived briefly, but stopped within a year. Jamaica had the first railway lines opened to traffic outside Europe and North America.