KINGSTON, Jamaica—Schools are being urged to distribute the more than 4,000 Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) student cards, to enable students to benefit from subsidised fares under the National Rural School Bus Programme.

This appeal came from JUTC Managing Director Owen Ellington, during his address at the Ministry of Energy, Transport and Telecommunications press conference on Tuesday, February 17.

He noted that the cards are already in schools awaiting distribution to students, stressing that uptake is essential to ensure the programme’s viability.

“I’d like to use this opportunity to make an appeal to the schools and the parents… to the entire nation… to help us get the student registration, validation and distribution of cards up to the level required. We estimate that we are moving 16,000 children per day in this phase. We’d like to see the numbers [for card usage] around that figure,” Ellington said.

With the Student Card, users pay a flat rate of $50 per trip. The JUTC began collecting subsidised fares under the programme on February 1 of this year.

Recent data from El Hydro, the contractor engaged to monitor the school bus programme’s fare collection arrangement, indicate that some 11,164 students have applied and registered, with just over 10,000 validated and entered into the system.

Ellington reported that more than 6,000 student cards have been issued to schools for distribution, with 5,000 prepared and ready to be handed out. However, to date, only a little more than 1,900 students have actually received a card in hand.

“This is significantly lower than we would have liked it to be at this stage. And even of that small number, it’s just about 550… 560 or so students that have actually put funds on their card,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ellington indicated that once the electronic fare collection system is fully implemented, it will deliver a more accurate commuter count.

“We urge parents to ensure the cards are topped up, and we are appealing to the children to use the cards when they enter and exit the bus… [to] ensure that they are registered on the bus… [and] tap when they are leaving to ensure that they are registered off the bus. It is also the means by which the JUTC will earn some revenue,” he said.

Ellington said phase one of the National Rural School Bus Programme has been fully rolled out and implemented.

The initial phase involved the acquisition, retrofitting, equipping, and deployment of 110 buses to the JUTC, commencing the programme on a phased basis in September of last year and concluding in January of this year.

The service was operated free of charge from its inception in September until the end of January 2026.

“I am happy to say that the full number of buses has been acquired, they have been retrofitted and they have been made available to the JUTC. I am also pleased to say that our bus availability is consistently above 85… that is to say, buses that are available for service each day. Our deployment, to date, has averaged in the high 70s… mid 80s in terms of daily number of buses run out… and bear in mind that we run out two shifts per day,” Ellington outlined.

With the acquisition of additional buses for the JUTC and the National Rural School Bus Programme slated for fiscal year 2026/27, Ellington stated that “the JUTC will continue to build out its internal capacity in terms of staffing and structure to accommodate these buses and deploy them in alignment with the schedule agreed between the JUTC and the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information”.

“We are pleased, delighted, and honoured to be asked to run the service on behalf of the country, and we look forward to continued support from stakeholders in making this a reality,” he added.

-JIS