THE Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) should be fully operational by this morning, three days after drivers withdrew their service due to the shooting death of their colleague.

Cecil Thoms — communications manager at the state-run entity — said at 1:00 pm yesterday, the number of buses on the roads had risen to 314, compared to just over 100 on Wednesday. He said he expects that number to rise to 340 this morning.

But, Thoms admitted that the current reduction in the number of buses is not totally blamed on the absence of the drivers, but also the fact that, of the 400 buses the company utilises daily on its routes, some were not rain worthy and, therefore, would not be rolled during the inclement weather.

“The weather impact is likely to keep the number below 400, because we don’t want to send out buses which are leaking and not trustworthy for the current weather. But, we expect the number to rise to 340-350,” he told Jamaica Observer’s weekly Auto magazine.

He added that in terms of the drivers, who were insisting that they would not resume normality without the assurance of improved security, they are growing more confident and are returning to work.

“There is still a lingering fear among the drivers, but they feel confident enough to resume. We don’t want to put them in harm’s way, and so we are working strategically with the security forces to provide the necessary protection and so more and more drivers are showing up,” he said.

The company’s drivers had withdrawn their service on Tuesday in response to the killing of Mikkel Donaldson, one of the company’s mechanics, the previous day. He was shot and killed on Oxford Road in New Kingston said to be in retaliation for the fatal stabbing of a taxi operator, allegedly by a JUTC driver.

The atmosphere was intensified by Facebook postings, as well as WhatsApp voice notes, suggesting that the killing of the mechanic was in retaliation for the killing of the taxi driver and that more retaliatory killing should expected.

The police have, however, indicated that they have no evidence that the killing of the mechanic or of threats of more attacks on bus drivers are connected.

Route taxis are privately-owned vehicles licensed by the government to complement the publicly owned JUTC bus service.

But, in the meantime, the withdrawal of the bus drivers created chaos in the public transport service as schools and some businesses closed down to allow students and workers to find a way home. The halt to the more orderly bus service was a windfall for the private vehicles, including robots (unlicensed taxis), which created their own routes within the Kingston Metropolitan Region (KMR) which comprises Kingston, St Andrew and parts of St Catherine, including Portmore and Spanish Town.

The situation was worsened by the heavy rainfall affecting the island over the past week, as well as the prolonged work on the Corporate Area’s main road systems which has created reduced space for traffic.