Category: News

The Government has allocated $1.3 billion towards the acquisition of spare parts and special tools for the maintenance of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) fleet of buses.

The sum is provided for in the 2017-18 Estimates of Expenditure now before the House of Representatives.

To be implemented by the Ministry of Transport and Mining with funding provided through the Government’s Consolidated Fund, the project is part of a raft of measures to improve the public passenger transportation sector.

The procurement of the spare parts is intended to enhance the JUTC’s capacity to effect repairs to its fleet of buses as part of its preventive maintenance strategy.

In the meantime, $10 million has been set aside in the Estimates to undertake and complete a feasibility assessment for the proposed Portmore Transportation Centre/Hub.

This allocation is required to commence the second phase of the project (project development), public relations and community sensitisation sessions; and to assist with the pre-project baseline data collection and research execution.

It is anticipated that the facility will greatly improve traffic management in Portmore to ensure the efficient movement of vehicles and facilitate better service planning for the transit company.

Additionally, some $671,000 has been budgeted for the Trifold National Transport Repository Project comprising the Transport Statistics Database, the Transport Research Databank and the Geographic Information System (GIS) Database.

The anticipated targets include: development of a joint interface for the GIS; design and implementation of a Transport Research Databank as well as a Transport Statistics Database; restructuring of the Ministry’s GIS Database and establishment of linkages to statistics and research databases.

The Jamaica Urban Transit Company Limited (JUTC) officially launched its Customer Care Centre on Thursday (November 5), as it works to improve service delivery to its approximately 240,000 clients.

The centre, which is located at the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre in Kingston was constructed at a cost of some $500,000. It is manned by five call centre representatives, and offers 24-hour service to respond to customer queries and complaints, and deal with conflict resolution.

The facility, which has been operational since February of this year has received 7,500 calls, which is an average of 730 calls per day.

In his remarks at the ceremony, Managing Director of the JUTC, Colin Campbell, noted that the centre is just one of several initiatives by the JUTC to improve service delivery to the public.

He informed that the Customer Service Guides have been increased from 11 to 44 personnel spread across the JUTC customer service access points in Kingston, Greater Portmore and Spanish Town, to provide on-the-ground assistance to commuters.

These guides inform JUTC travellers about routes, tickets and bus schedules as well as provide special assistance to disabled persons, who use the facilities. A customer service information desk was also installed at the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre.

Additionally, the JUTC Managing Director said arrangements are being made to ensure that the 2,173 employees of the JUTC are trained in customer service techniques by March 31. A small group of JUTC staff is currently being taught sign language to facilitate hearing-impaired clients.

Mr. Campbell said that the agency takes its responsibility as the premier public transportation agency in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR) very seriously.

“With 140,000 adult commuters and 100,000 school children, pensioners and disabled commuters every day, we have to service that community and make sure that they not only travel safely, from origin to destination, but that the experience on the JUTC is a positive experience in terms of the customer service,” he stated.

Senior Director (Acting) of the Modernization Programme Implementation Unit, Office of the Cabinet, Michelle Gordon-Somers, commended the JUTC on the initiative, which she said, is in keeping with the Government’s thrust to improve service delivery among the state agencies.

“The establishment of your Customer Care Centre certainly indicates your interest in the wellbeing of your customers and interest in the quality of services accessed by them. It also demonstrates that you have rightly placed priority on delivering excellence to your clients. This initiative is in line with the service delivery thrust currently in place in the public sector,” she noted.

The Customer Care Centre operates under the JUTC’s Special Projects and Corporate Affairs Department.

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.

Up to Friday, March 28, only  43 or 13 per cent of the 319 operators approved to operate under the new Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) sub-franchise system, had done the necessary due diligence to begin operating on Tuesday, April 1.

This was noted by the JUTC’s Managing Director, Colin Campbell, at a meeting with the licencees on March 29, at the Elletson Road Police Station, in Kingston.

Mr. Campbell implored operators who have not yet done so, to submit their documents to the Island Traffic Authority and have their buses colour-coded according to the stipulations of the new agreement, by the April 8 deadline.

The meeting was held to facilitate dialogue between the JUTC and its licencees to ensure a seamless transition on April 1.

He reminded the operators that although the implementation date is April 1, there will be a seven-day grace period for non-compliant operators to regularize their operations.

Mr. Campbell said the police are fully aware of the grace period and will not impose any sanctions during that time.

The Managing Director advised the licencees that they will be required to sign a contract that outlines the responsibility of the parties in the sub-license arrangement, and explained that the contract will be valid for a period of one year, and that renewal for periods of one, three or five years will be based on performance.

Operators who expressed concern that they may not be able to become compliant by the given deadline were assured by Mr. Campbell that representation will be made on their behalf to extend the deadline, at a meeting with the Police Commissioner  on Monday, March 31.

Mr. Campbell said that the JUTC team will be meeting with the Commissioner to outline the enforcement issues they have experienced over the years, and told the operators that, “the same interest we have in the JUTC buses is the same interest that will be shown in yours.”

Manager of the JUTC’s Franchise Protection and Inspection Department, retired Senior Superintendent of Police, Radcliffe Lewis, informed the drivers that they will be taken through the route familiarization process at the earliest possible date, to ensure that no one deviates from the routes during operation.

The sub-franchise licencees were reminded that based on the new requirement that they wear an identification card issued by the JUTC, they will be entitled to some of the privileges of JUTC employees,  such as riding JUTC buses free of cost.