MINISTER of Transport Daryl Vaz is confident that the recently launched National Rural School Bus Programme survived the worst of Hurricane Melissa and will roll out strong for the start of the new school term in January.

According to Vaz, students islandwide will be able to enjoy the comfort and safety of the system in the next academic term as the buses have already been pressed into service in the aftermath of Melissa, except where some routes remain inaccessible.

“The rural school bus is actually doing exceptionally well in relation to pre-Melissa and post-Melissa,” Vaz told reporters and editors at the Jamaica Observer Press Club last Thursday.

“Obviously some areas, because of the damage to schools, et cetera, some routes are not being traversed, but we won’t be far off of the original commitment of the 110 [100] buses for January morning,” said Vaz.

Prior to the devastation handed out by the Category 5 storm across a large swathe of the island, Vaz had announced that come January the first batch of 110 buses should be in Jamaica, with 100 assigned to designated routes and 10 held in reserve.

The system, which was launched in September, is managed by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), with some 60 buses deployed across the island at the launch.

At that time Vaz announced that 200 schools were benefiting from the programme, with additional institutions due to benefit during the phased implementation of the programme.

He said an additional 40 units would be deployed between September and November. But on Thursday Vaz said shipping issues had caused a delay in some of the buses getting to Jamaica, but that has been addressed and all should be in place for January 2026 when the Ministry of Education expects all schools to reopen.

Vaz’s confidence is shared by JUTC’s Managing Director Owen Ellington, who told the Observer that the school buses faced little or no Melissa-related damage.

“We had a few buses with windshields blown out, and I think at least one of them had a roof hatch dislodged, but they have all been repaired,” said Ellington.

He explained that outside of issues with access to some communities, the rural school bus programme is still in good standing, with more buses scheduled to be added to the current fleet for the new school term.

“The only issues we have out there is the inaccessibility of some routes. Some of the roads are still not yet fully accessible, and there are some schools that are not yet open. So if all schools are open and all roadways are accessible, we will have full deployment as we had before the hurricane, and we should see increased deployments with the addition of some 40 more buses,” said Ellington.

He pointed out that areas in south-western Jamaica, which were hard hit by the Category 5 storm, would be of the greatest concern regarding accessibility.

According to Ellington, the acquisition of the 110 buses is nearly complete, with only six not yet attained. He said the missing few will not hinder the roll-out of the programme in January to safely transport the nation’s students to and from institutions.

“The process of getting them ready for deployment is well advanced, so we should have all 100 buses earmarked for January, ready and deployed,” Ellington said.