THE EDITOR, Sir:
AS A regular commuter on the JUTC buses from the inception of the service, I would like to respond to Mr. John A. Williams who wrote "Testing the JUTC Service", your letter of the day, May 7, 2001.
It was a real pity and a terrible oversight that he did not telephone the JUTC and report the bus driver's grave misconduct, as definitely would have happened in the "Metropolitan countries". Such action would, in fact, be exemplary of the responsible behaviour very necessary from the public if the new system is to succeed.
It is true that the buses are generally clean at the beginning of the day but by midday they are generally filthy with juice and food containers or their contents. This is so because, as witnessed by Mr. Williams, vending on the buses is not discouraged and there are no seriously prohibitive fines in place to dissuade both sellers and passengers not to flout the rule.
While the government should wholeheartedly be applauded for its vision and outright bravery for attempting to establish a modern and workable transport system, the service, at this point, leaves much to be desired. The monitoring system is weak. Bus crews are still attempting to cut routes short, such as the 86 buses using East Queen Street to Parade instead of going down East Street.
There is also the matter of a published bus schedule or timetable. This is the hallmark of a transport system, without it there is no system, yet it seems we will never have one. It would seem to me that the basic inadequacies of the service need to be addressed before any consideration of a fare increase.
I am, etc.,
K. KHALFANI RA
Kingston 3
