Month: August 2014

The Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) will be adding 100 buses to routes in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR) as of Monday (September 1).

This will bring the number of buses in operation to 445, said the bus company’s Managing Director, Colin Campbell.

He was addressing a media briefing at the JUTC’s Spanish Town Depot in Twickenham Park, St. Catherine on August 27, following a tour of several JUTC locations.

He noted that up to the end of the last school term, the JUTC operated 400 buses, which were then reduced to 345 during the summer period.

“So, on Monday morning, there will be an additional 100 JUTC buses on the road and we expect that this will provide full service for the entire KMTR,” he said.

Mr. Campbell assured that the buses will be running according to a schedule, as the company works to improve the quality of its service to the public.

“We will not just be throwing 445 buses on the road, but we will have a schedule of every single route, all 120 routes that the JUTC operates,” he said.

He informed that those schedules will be posted in the JUTC’s transport centres; on its website http://www.jutc.com/, on flyers; and they will also be published in the two major newspapers on Sunday, August 31.

“So, everybody will be able to buy a copy of the Gleaner, or the Observer on Sunday and you will be able to keep that schedule and select the route that applies to you,” he said.

“You will be able to see how many buses are on that particular route and what is the frequency, what is the first arrival or first departure time in the morning, and you’ll be able to know that “on my route, there is a bus every 10 minutes or every five minutes’ and you’ll be able to plan your life according to that schedule,” Mr. Campbell said.

Prior to the media briefing, the Managing Director, accompanied by several JUTC executives, led a tour of the company’s Spanish Town Depot, Portmore Depot, the Ashenheim Road Maintenance facility and the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre.

Several of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) buses, which were out of service for lengthy periods, have been repaired in time for the start of the new school term, starting on September 1.

This follows an intensive maintenance programme carried out by the JUTC during the summer period.

Managing Director of the JUTC, Colin Campbell, says this is one of the strategies which have been employed by the company to improve its level of service in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR).

“We expect that once we roll out on Monday morning (September 1), the service to the KMTR will be at an even higher level than it was in the last school year. We intend to carry all the passengers and more than we did last year,” he said.

Mr. Campbell was addressing a media briefing at the JUTC’s Spanish Town Depot in Twickenham Park, St. Catherine, following a tour of several JUTC locations yesterday (August 28).

He noted that while 445 buses will be dispatched for September 1, the repaired buses bring to 503, the total number of buses now available in the JUTC fleet.

“This will enable us to have a reliable service, because if a bus goes down, we can always substitute,” he said, adding that the JUTC has never been in better health, “as far as our fleet is concerned and we intend to keep it that way.”

He noted that several of the buses that were out of service were relatively new units that used to be “cannibalized”, because of the lack of spare parts, where parts would be taken from them to fix other buses.

“A number of our buses, I think almost 30 buses, were out for long-term repairs, meaning buses that were out for more than 365 days. In some cases, buses were out for up to 700 days parked in our garage because they were cannibalized,” he said.

Mr. Campbell said it is intended that the repaired buses will be kept in service now, due to the “very tight policy of no cannibalisation of units in the JUTC.”

Prior to the media briefing, the Managing Director, accompanied by several JUTC executives, led a tour of the company’s Spanish Town Depot, Portmore Depot, the Ashenheim Road Maintenance facility and the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre.