The national ‘name-the-Cabinet’ competition ended last week Monday when the prime minister drew his selections out of the box and announced the winners. The deck was already stacked as the PM has sole right to the Cabinet draws. Nevertheless, we had our fun making those lofty submissions while playing the role of prime minister wannabes.

Now all the cards are on the table and the game is on in full. The Cabinet Makers Association (CMA) will be watching the game closely; win, lose or draw. One member underwent a streak of bad luck at Caymanas last week. He blamed his losses on the fact that, unlike a game of cards, he couldn’t shuffle the horses. Prime Minister Holness is not trusting to any such luck. He has dealt a very carefully laid-out hand that leaves little room for failure. He has committed his Government to a policy of efficiency and frugality and will be setting strict performance parameters for his ministers. He has given notice that he can shuffle the pack. That is how it should be.

Notwithstanding the failure to name the right Cabinet, the CMA and the country in general have extended a warm welcome to the new Administration. The PNP has been gracious so far in tendering congratulations to the incoming ministers and in offering their support. The Cabinet selections have been largely endorsed across the table. The shared goodwill that has been expressed so far between Government and Opposition is, from my recollection, unprecedented. It’s a good start and the country is expecting good results.

Two of the most admired (not necessarily beloved) ministers in the Cabinet are Audley Shaw and Mike Henry. Both men deliver. In 2006 I heard Audley Shaw speak at a Chamber of Commerce meeting in Mandeville. He was in Opposition at the time, but in all his pronouncements leading up to the 2007 election, after which he became minister of finance, he had always been clear and unequivocal about his objectives.

This occasion was no different. He posited a four-point plan in which he vowed to reduce interest rates on local debt, borrow overseas money at low interest, stabilise the dollar, and carry out the divestment of critical loss-making public entities. Not even his most outspoken detractors could ever say that he did not deliver on these.

Shaw’s personality recommends itself as a man who engages people with a confident and winning style. He has what too many politicians lack, a strong sense of humour and the ability to enjoy a joke on himself. Years ago, while driving through the hills of Manchester, I came across Shaw enjoying a drink with some locals in a little shop. At that time he had not yet run for a seat but his engaging personality was winning friends all around the social strata of his chosen constituency. Here there were no fake exchanges, just his regular hearty, jovial self, building relationships, perhaps buying a few drinks, but sharing in and understanding the day-to-existence of those rural folk who would later make him their ‘man-a-yard’.

Audley has the ability to see the funnier side of things, even while he wades argumentatively into his opponent. He usually ends the encounter with a smile and a jest that helps to smooth the harshness of the verbal tongue lashing.

To his eternal credit he enjoys politics in or out of office. Mike Henry is of the same make-up. Invincible at the polls, he remains loyal to his constituents, champions their cause, is magnanimous to his opponents, and is an exceptional visionary thinker. Both men tell you what they are going to do and they do it.

I am looking forward to Mike Henry reopening the Jamaica Railway Service. He has said he will do it and therefore you can rest assured that the trains will be up and running again. What an incredible sight it was to see the train emerge from the tunnel in the Bog Walk Gorge, dressed in black, green and gold, and steering its way across the St Catherine countryside from Spanish Town to Bog Walk.

As someone who grew up on the railway I sometimes take a nostalgic ride in my mind on the line from Montego Bay to Kingston. The railway takes you through some of the most magnificent scenery in the world. I recently drove on the new highway leg from Moneague to Angels. Jamaica’s beauty unfolded around every corner, with vast orange groves to the left, verdant hillsides to the right, and acres and acres of unmolested land and scenery greeting you at every turn. Of such is the railway journey that takes you across the hills and valleys of central Jamaica as you depart Montego Bay for Kingston.

“Keep your seats, please,” calls the conductor as we pull out of Railway Lane, passing through the cattle countries of Anchovy and Montpelier to ascend to Cambridge, centred in a banana-growing district and considered the second town of St James. The next station at Catadupa was once a popular stop for tourists who came visiting via The Governor’s Coach Tour. The local seamstresses would measure the ladies for brightly coloured blouses and skirts and sew them in time for delivery on their way back from the Appleton Estate tour located further inland.

Between Stonehenge and Ipswitch passengers are treated to the spectacular scenery offered by the cockpit country. The line then descends to Maggotty and Appleton as we travel through the upper valley of the Black River ringed to the south by the Nassau Mountains, and to the north by the cockpit range.

We shuttle through Balaclava, where a famous derailment in 1938 killed 32 people, and unto Greenvale, the highest point on the track at 1,705 feet. A few minutes later we are passing through Grove Place in Manchester, where Alcan maintained its cattle breeding station for many years.

Next stop is the deserted Kendal station, where even the old Georgian two-storey building has crumbled, no doubt in the wake of the tragic railway accident that took nearly 200 lives on that unforgettable night, September 3, 1957. Further down the line comes the sleepy Williamsfield station servicing Mandeville and its environs, followed by a gradual 1,000-feet descent to Porus before entering the Clarendon plains. There is a short halt for drinks, roast cashew nuts and a pee at the Clarendon Park halt run by the Lees family, and then major stops at Four Paths and May Pen down the line.

May Pen was a hub which sent a spur line up through the Rio Minho Valley to Frankfield, and where the river was crossed by a bridge used both by rail and road traffic. A line also went south to Vernam Field, an American air base established during World War II, next door to the Goat Islands, themselves used as a navy base during the war, and now facing an uncertain future after being put out to drip-dry by the Chinese and sundry ministries of government.

The conductor, resplendent in his uniform and waving his lantern as a signal to the station master, announces the next stops as the Bodles agricultural station halt, and then Old Harbour, it of the fried fish and bammy fame. Some miles beyond Old Harbour, and after crossing a picturesque aqueduct at Bushy Park, we journey for a while through the Innswood cane fields and into Spanish Town, another hub where the sub line takes you across country to Port Antonio.

Since we are going to Kingston we remain on the main line and cross over the Rio Cobre, nudge our way through the Bernard Lodge and Caymanas sugar estates, make a promise to visit Port Henderson or Port Royal, which can be seen in the distance on the right, and after crossing the Sandy Gully water course which empties into Hunt’s Bay, we arrive at our destination, Barry Street, Kingston.

It’s been quite a journey for us passengers, a forgotten slice of Jamaican life. On the way we were treated to a never-ending dialogue and gossip among passengers, vendors, students, and even itinerant pastors. We enjoyed biscuits, sugar cane, aerated waters, fritters, oranges, pink-on-top, gizzarda, fruits, drops, and cooked meals at the various stops.

We met legendary train drivers like Joe Waugh, got the scare of our lives as we darted in and out of tunnels, listened to the sound of the Morse code on the telegraph machines in the station offices, and weighed ourselves on the oversized loading scales sitting pompously on the passenger platforms.

Sadly, the Jamaica railway which started up in 1845 ceased operating as a public rail transport in 1992.

We look forward to Mike Henry hopefully giving us a reopening, even for the May Pen to Linstead run, and further beyond.

Lance Neita is a public and community relations consultant and writer. Send comments to the Observer or lanceneita@hotmail. com.