OPPOSITION spokesman on transport Mikael Phillips is expressing concern over the projection that the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) will spend an additional $1.8 billion in staff costs in the 2025/26 financial year when compared to this year.

During the 2024/25 financial year the JUTC spent approximately $4.3 billion in staff costs and has projected that it will spend approximately $6.1 billion in the new year.

On Friday Phillips used a meeting of Parliament’s Standing Finance Committee to demand an explanation from Minister of Transport Daryl Vaz for the sharp increase.

In response, Vaz stated that JUTC will see an increase of 240 workers across all areas.“The total including the depots and also the areas of JUTC as of September 2024 would be 1,626 and in 25/26 would be 1,866, so it would be an increase of 240 overall,” responded Vaz. He pointed out that the majority of the 240 new staff will be drivers based on the number of new buses the JUTC is expected to receive this year.

But this did not satisfy Phillips who argued, “I don’t think there was any mass redundancy at the JUTC especially to do with drivers and you have been having less and less bus roll-out so to be employing an additional 200 plus, is it because of redundancies? Why are we taking on more drivers when you are still having a low roll-out of buses to be increasing the payroll by an additional $1.8 billion?”

To that Vaz responded that a meeting will be held with the Ministry of Finance to go over the information in detail and promised to take a closer look at the projected figures in order to offer more clarity on the issue.In the meantime Phillips also expressed concern that the JUTC’s Portmore depot is the only one able to host the compressed natural gas (CNG) which were added to the JUTC fleet last year. “That facility, to my knowledge, was not built for more than about 120 buses, you are over the 120 buses and you are operating the CNG buses from your other depots also, so that means that if they are leaving Rockfort they will have to go to Portmore to fuel then head back to Rockfort,” said Phillips as he added that his concern was heightened as Jamaica is expecting more CNG buses this year.

Addressing this concern, Vaz announced that the ministry is looking at the Spanish Town depot as the next location to host the new CNG buses.

“Spanish Town has been decided as the next CNG depot, we are far advanced with negotiations in relation to the establishment of a plant there similar to what the New Fortress Energy did and we are looking to diversify and expand to be able to have options in relation to the plants and the supply.

“But for right now, based on the fact that the 70 CNG buses and the 30 diesel buses are due to arrive in Jamaica in June 2025, we are running against the clock,” said Vaz.

The transport minister admitted that it is a race against time as it will take a minimum of six months to complete the implementation of the new plant in Spanish Town to better deal with serving with the bus load.

According to Vaz, the CNG-fuelled buses have been strategically placed on routes close to the depot in Portmore as best as possible for better efficiency.

He argued that despite the challenges, the JUTC service has improved over the past 18 months with the addition of CNG buses.