By McPherse Thompson, Staff Reporter
President of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) Sterling Soares (second right), and conductress Glendene Deer (right) demonstrate the operation of the 'smart' card system. Looking on are the then British High Commissioner Jim Malcolm (left) and Francois Stewart, JUTC equipment services representative. They were at the Spanish Town Bus depot at the opening of the smart card service division on November 13, 2000. - File
THE JAMAICA Urban Transit Company (JUTC) is expected to start a phased introduction of its long-delayed 'smart' card electronic fare collection system next month.
The state-owned company will start using stored value cards in a phased introduction of the system. It's public relations manager, Errol Lee, said earlier this week that they were close to finalising the selection of a contractor for distribution of the cards. The card system will replace the present system of collecting cash on public buses in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region.
The JUTC has some 400,000 of the machine-readable, re-usable electronic cards, each of which will initially be sold for $50, Mr. Lee said. Commuters will be able to have additional amounts added to the cards once the initial amount has been used, and those desirous of doing so may have the cards personalised.
The automated payment system is a long-standing Government plan to put in place a cashless fare collection system to improve the accuracy and reliability of the fare box. It is also expected to cut the number of robberies on buses by eliminating cash transactions.
Mr. Lee said a contract for the distribution of the cards was put to tender and several companies responded. Those desirous of obtaining the contract would have been required to have the basic infrastructure in place to distribute the cards, he said.
An announcement had been made in July of 2000 that the cards would have come into use by August of that year. In November of that year it was announced that a the JUTC had formed a new division to manage the card system and a pilot project had started.
The JUTC's electronic fares collection manager, Nimal Amitirigala in March of last year had said the company would have begun to implement the electronic system by June of that year. The introduction was to follow a pilot project in which students at the University of Technology (UTech) were to test the user-friendliness of the cards.
That second introduction was put on hold in July of last year by the then JUTC chairman Joseph Matalon. He said that the company had to assure itself that the proposed Smart Card would be economically viable.
Mr. Matalon said the bus company wanted to do a full review of the routes to ensure that the smart cards were readily accessible to the public, and that the service itself was economically viable
The US$4.6 million capital outlay for the electronic fare collection system included acquisition of the 400,000 smart cards, electronic ticketing machines, depot readers, computer equipment and servers.
