MINISTER of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport Daryl Vaz says approval has been given for hackney carriage licences to be converted to route taxi licences for 11 routes in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR).

A hackney carriage is used for carrying passengers for hire or reward, according to the Transport Authority website,  www.ta.org.jm. The owners, whilst operating the taxi service, are not permitted to use bus stops or terminals as these are designated for the use of stage and express carriages only. These vehicles should carry no more than four passengers who should be travelling together.

The Transport Authority sets out that route taxis, on the other hand, may carry passengers paying separate fares along a designated route and can stop to pick up or let off passengers along the route. Route taxis must have 10 seats or less.

“Eleven routes have been approved,” Vaz said at a press conference Tuesday morning inside the boardroom of the Half-Way-Tree Transportation Centre. “The transport operators have asked the public transport operators steering committee to consider some routes within the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region for conversion. The steering committee considered the request and it was supported by the Transport Authority and the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) has not objected to the implementation of these 11 routes which are currently held exclusively for the JUTC.”

Even while the minister expressed enthusiasm about the JUTC expanding its services outside of the KMTR, he said the authorities do not want to hold on to the routes and not be able to service them.

“It is better to release them so that other persons can benefit and spread even wider in terms of the service and the routes. The routes will be considered in the licensing period 2025/2026,” Vaz said.

The approved routes include East Queen Street to Norman Gardens; East Queen Street to Rennock Lodge; South Camp Road to Cross Roads; South Camp Road to Vineyard Town; East Queen Street to Rollington Town; East Queen Street to Franklin Town; Half-Way-Tree via Hagley Park Road to Three Miles; Hope Road to Papine; Red Hills Road to Chancery Street; and Washington Boulevard to Duhaney Park.

“Those are routes that were exclusively held for the JUTC. We have released those routes and those routes will be serviced by public PPV. I am just hearing from the head of the Transport Authority that there is another 12 routes that the JUTC has. A request has been made for the JUTC to do the same. That will be 23 routes. While we expand to serve other new routes by the JUTC, we are releasing because we want to level the playing field. We want to give public transport operators the opportunity to earn and be profitable,” the minister said.