The more things change...

THE EDITOR, Sir:

THE IRONY is that the new bus system operated by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) with its comfortable, long and wide-bodied fleet, articulated and bi-articulated units and much-improved scheduling should have helped to reduce traffic, but since the last twelve months, there have been more cars on the road than the city can accommodate and every other one is either a "robot" illegal taxi-cab or wears a red plate.

There is now more disorder on the roads. Lay-offs and redundancies have contributed to the situation but many operators have steady full-time jobs and are taking advantage of the free-for-all to make easy money. The police have turned a blind eye to the robots. That's understandable.

In June 2001 Lieutenant Commander John McFarlane, former head of the Transport Licensing Authority (TLA) reminded us that many of the robots all over the country were owned and operated by policemen and that there were perhaps as many taxis, legal and illegal, owned by policemen. Unhappily, Lieutenant Commander McFarlane is no longer at the TLA. He seemed ready to do something about the situation. Who will bell the cat? Can we expect someone to do that when elections are so near?

Every route is swamped by these taxi-cabs, legal and illegal, mini-vans, mini-buses and even buses from the previous system, with conductors hanging out and the music blaring. One of the blue and white buses, formerly with National Transport Co-operative Society (NTCS) was on Washington Boulevard recently picking up passengers at every stop, just ahead of the JUTC bus. The more things change the more they remain the same, indeed.

One wonders whether the new arrangement with the NTCS is working. Is the JUTC or the Ministry of Transport doing a survey or monitoring the system to ensure that NTCS is honouring the April 2001 agreement/licence?

Bare-faced mini-buses, vans and other robots have taken over the bus-stops, especially downtown, with no regard for the JUTC buses which have to wait until these vehicles are loaded or overladen, to enter the parking area. This happens frequently at the #32 bus stop in Half-Way Tree. The West Parade situation is worse.

JUTC might be losing market share. The next news out of the company might be redundancies and withdrawal of service from unprofitable routes. It will be back to the ramshackle. For years there were cries for an improved bus service. It came. It has been rejected by many. These buses cost J$6 billion, including loans which have to be repaid. Everything should be done to make the company viable.

The JUTC has just not been able to get the support it deserves. People say the buses are too slow, stop too often, stop at every bus stop and are forced to inch in the traffic; features which were not a part of the old system. No relationship is seen between robots, congestion and slow-moving buses. Kingstonians accustomed to the chaos and free-for-all system of the 1980s and 1990s, are finding it difficult to adjust to a system which requires that passengers enter and exit through different doors; that buses take designated routes, pick up and let off at bus stops only and operate within the speed limit. A whole generation has no idea of what an even half-decent bus service should be. Robots bob and weave through traffic, overtake dangerously and even charge a higher fare but people prefer them; prefer to sit on each other, packed like sardines just to get there quickly.

From observation, routes #21 and #22 (Spanish Town, #83 (Mountain View/Half Way Tree), #70 (Papine) and #32 (Duhaney Park) might be profitable routes and the competition from robots is growing on these routes. The buses on routes 49, 46, 44, and 42 are usually empty and the robots full. Is the #44 route too circuitous for persons wishing to go to Mannings Hill Road? Why, for example, isn't there a bus which travels along Constant Spring Road to Mary Brown's Corner and along Mannings Hill road?

The robot problem will not go away for now and if the "Smart Card" is not very easily available the buses will all be empty and the robots full.

I am, etc.,

HOPE ATKINS

Kingston 20

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