MR Daryl Vaz, the minister of transport, brought good news to the nation last week at a press conference on issues relating to the State-owned Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC).

According to Mr Vaz, a combination of recently implemented measures has led to the prevention of just over $26.8 million in ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD) theft in February alone at the company which has been bleeding for decades. The volume of fuel saved, he said, was 135,992 litres and, had that illegal activity been sustained for a 12-month period, it would have cost taxpayers more than $322 million.

Among the measures implemented are intelligence-gathering; new and strict bus dispatch procedures; 24-hour police deployment at the JUTC depot in Spanish Town, St Catherine; as well as an ongoing operational collaboration with the police.

Mr Vaz came to the news conference armed with data to show the effectiveness of the measures. He pointed out that in December 2024 eight tanker loads or 250,570 litres of fuel were stolen. The following month the theft dipped slightly to seven tanker loads, or 219,254 litres of fuel, while in February this year the loss to theft plunged to three tanker loads or 93,600 litres.

So the measures over that time, he said, resulted in savings of $32 million to taxpayers.

It’s an encouraging development, even as we lament the company’s projected operating loss of approximately $13.84 billion and a total loss of almost $18 billion, before it receives a government grant of $10.9 billion that will lower its total loss for 2025/26 to $6.97 billion.

Those numbers make it clear that much remains to be done to lighten the burden on the State. For, as we have repeatedly argued, we need to treat public transportation as an investment and manage it in a manner to generate huge social, economic and environmental returns.

We get the sense that this view is shared by the Government as last August the Administration acquired 100 new compressed natural gas (CNG) buses for JUTC, in an obvious move to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Based on Minister Vaz’s calculation, the use of CNG units will result in fuel savings of $1.8 billion annually.

Last Tuesday Mr Vaz told the country that another 100 buses are scheduled to arrive in the island between June and July this year. Of that number, 70 are CNG units that will be added to the daily fleet, while the remaining 30, which are diesel units, will be used for charter purposes.

Additionally, he revealed that the JUTC is preparing to commence testing an electric-powered bus that uses a self-charging battery.

How far down the wicket the Administration will go with EV units is left to be seen, but Mr Vaz has signalled the Government’s intention to deliver eco-friendly public transportation while increasing the fleet in an effort to help enhance production, commerce, leisure travel, and other activities that positively impact people’s lives.

Going by what we are seeing so far, the right moves are being made to turn the company around. But, as we said, there is a lot more to be done, including sifting out unskilled individuals who were placed there simply because of their political affiliation.

Mr Vaz and his team should continue to press the reform accelerator.