A former major player in the public transportation sector is adamant that the Government’s efforts to implement a school bus system will fail if certain measures are not put in place to ensure students use the service.

Lamenting the unruly nature of the current public transportation system, former president of the Portmore Mini Bus Association, Herbert “Bertie” Ross, is suggesting that the Government institutes a ban on heavy sound systems in buses.

“The new year coming up, the [Government] could stipulate that as of the 31st of March 2025 no bus [operator] will be granted licences with excess sound systems. Maybe the minister [Daryl Vaz] will become unpopular, but you have to do some unpopular things to get things done,” Ross said in a recent interview with the Jamaica Observer.

According to Ross, while he is in favour of the Government introducing dedicated school buses, as administrations have attempted to do over the years, it will be a hard task to operate.

He said it is obvious that some students are not thinking about the safe, reliable travel to and from school that a school bus would provide, but will instead clamour to modes of transportation which have “bashment type of driving, bashment music, and the squeezing up against one another”.

He added: “You don’t have that in the official school buses and the young generation — from years gone by, not just now — want that kind of association… They want to do their own thing,” said Ross.

Recalling a recent personal experience he had with girls from some secondary schools in the Corporate Area, Ross said he witnessed the students cramming into a particular vehicle, as they were enticed by the “hype” it came with.

“As a grandfather, I was ashamed to see the girls all packing into one of the [Toyota] Probox cars. The Probox had one front seat and three [girls were] in it. I can’t tell you how many were in the back seat. But they had five girls packing up into the trunk of the Probox,” said Ross as he noted that there were other public transportation options, but the girls wanted to be in that particular vehicle.

He said when he called to them and asked if they didn’t have any shame or pride, they laughed at him, as the taxi driver forced in yet another in the trunk space.

The former transport boss said he did not stand for indiscipline among his drivers when he was in the business.

He argued that the type of music played in some buses and taxis strongly influences behaviour and has an impact on students travelling in those with loud sound systems, often playing music inappropriate for children.

“Some of the garbage coming out on the airwaves isn’t fit for airplay. It shouldn’t even be playing in a dance, and I honestly feel that the authorities must do something about the type of music that is produced and played,” Ross told the Observer.

He said that when former Jamaica Labour Party Member of Parliament Pearnel Charles Sr was Minister of Public Utilities and Transport back in the 1980s, music was very rampant on buses then.

But then measures were put in place so that if the authorities stopped a bus that had any form of sound system they had to remove it immediately.

“These buses passing now, you hear them beating like a cricket pitch length and further away from you coming — boom, boom, boom — not in Mr Charles’ day. You couldn’t have no sound inna no bus. You have your radio with the news or whatever you want to listen, but no sound system,” he said.

Recent road crashes involving the deaths of children has renewed calls for a formal school bus system, especially in rural Jamaica.

Immediate Past President of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association Leighton Johnson has repeatedly called for this system, and last year, after being assigned the transport portfolio, Vaz pledged to give priority to the implementation of a safe, secure, efficient bus system for rural students.

Following the deaths of two students of Lennon High School in a road crash earlier this moth Vaz reminded operators of public passenger vehicles of their road safety responsibility when transporting passengers and declared that he is committed to strengthening the rural school bus program to ensure that students have access to safe, dependable transportation and to minimize the number of children travelling in vehicles being operated by rogue drivers.

In June, Vaz, in his contribution to the sectoral debate, said that the Government is looking at implementing a Rural School Transportation System on a phased basis.