In what could be a significant step towards easing long-standing transportation difficulties faced by thousands of university students, the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) has announced dedicated campus bus services for the start of the new academic year for commuters at The University of the West Indies (The UWI) and University of Technology (UTech), Jamaica.

Owen Ellington, the JUTC managing director, told journalists at a news conference Thursday that the initiative has its foundation in recent discussions with student representatives from The UWI Mona Guild and UTech Students’ Union.

He said the move aims to address safety concerns, travel delays, and the general unpredictability of public transportation for university students who rely on public transportation.

“Between the two campuses there are well over 20,000 students who require public transportation. Many of those students struggle in the mornings getting to campus and in the evenings getting off, and especially at night when the service offerings are reduced by the JUTC and become irregular by ordinary PPV operators. We have had situations in the past and even recently where students have been victimised because of the transportation mode that they are left to use,” Ellington said.

He added that as part of the proposed solution, buses will depart the campuses as late as 9:15 pm, giving students safer, more reliable options for returning home in the evenings.

He said that the routes will be dedicated to the university population, allowing for more structured and dependable service.

“In the evening, this is more important, the university students have asked us to provide dedicated transfer services from the campus to the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre, the Portmore general area, the Spanish Town general area, and to Old Harbour and we have committed to providing that. So we’ll have buses leaving the campus in the evening as late as 9.15 pm,” said Ellington.

He also announced that plans are in place to provide services for students living on campus who occasionally travel home to central and western parishes.

With the recent announcement that 15 of the newly acquired fleet of 30 diesel-powered coach buses — handed over to the JUTC on July 15 — will be assigned to the company’s new Rural Express Service, Ellington revealed that the State-owned bus company is exploring ways to support university students making long-distance weekend commutes.

He emphasised that the Rural Express Service — which will offer premium travel between Half-Way Tree in St Andrew and several major rural towns such as Mandeville, Port Antonio, Ocho Rios, Montego Bay, and Negril — could soon include a dedicated link for students travelling home.

Ellington said the student representatives had indicated to the JUTC that there are many students who live on campuses who wish to travel home on weekends but have no safe, reliable, well-structured, and predictable mode of transportation.

“They have asked us to include them in our planning for the roll-out of this service and it’s our intention, if need be, to actually take a coach on each of the campus on a Friday evening or a Saturday morning to take these students to the transportation centre in Half-Way-Tree so they can connect to the buses that are doing the rural express routes, travel home, visit family and friends,” he said.