JUTC alters downtown bus routes

THE JAMAICA Urban Transit Company (JUTC) over the weekend directed buses usually bound for downtown Kingston away from the area as the violence in West Kingston escalated.

Passengers were left at Cross Roads and Three Miles in Kingston between Saturday and yesterday as the JUTC altered regular bus routes, said officials at depots in Spanish Town, St. Catherine and Lyndhurst Road, Kingston.

Officials said that buses with the numbers 78, 21, 21A, 22, 22A, 30, 31, 31A and 32 had to be re-routed away from Parade, Orange Street, Slipe Pen and Spanish Town roads and other areas to protect the lives of bus crews and passengers as the violence raged.

One official told The Gleaner that passengers had been split on the decision, some furious that the buses had stopped before reaching downtown while others understood why the decision had been made. The Gleaner was also told that there had been reports that the Northern Franchise and Ashenheim depot had been ordered to pull the buses from those routes, based on advice from the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

David Ramocan, Senior Inspector at the Lyndhurst Road depot, said the buses had been allowed to venture downtown at intervals but had been re-routed about two o'clock yesterday afternoon when the depot was advised that gunshots had been heard in the Parade area. "We'll be starting out like every other day (today) but if it gets worse, we must shift the routes."

At the Spanish Town depot, which dispatch all of the buses mentioned except the number 78, the word was to wait until the JCF and JUTC president, Sterling Soares, gave the all-clear before putting the buses on regular routes.

Public transportation was not the only activity affected by the upsurge in violence. The National Blood Transfusion Service on Slipe Pen Road has been lamenting that continued violence has cost it valuable blood donors. Subsequent media reports also indicate that the violence has led to a postponement of an examination at the Denham Town High school and to the closure of the Denham Town Post Office.

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