By Nagra Plunkett, Staff Reporter 
Tore Larsson, Executive Consultant at the Jamaica Urban Transit Company Limited (JUTC), leads the way into one of the MAN 38-seater buses which will be used on the Above Rocks to Half-Way Tree route on Monday. The company has acquired 30 of the German made buses, all of which are equipped with Smart Card machines. - Norman Grindley/ Staff Photographer
THE JAMAICA Urban Transit Company Limited (JUTC), will, as of Monday, introduce a new route in Above Rocks, St. Catherine in an effort to ease the transportation shortage in that area.
"We conducted a survey in the community three weeks ago and we found that there were mainly taxis and few small buses that weren't sufficient," Jacqueline Darwood, JUTC Service Planning Manager told The Gleaner yesterday.
She said most of the complaints were from parents who said their children had to be getting up extremely early in the mornings in order to reach school on time.
The JUTC is proposing to service the route with four new MAN buses operating from Above Rocks to Half-Way Tree, Mondays through Fridays and Above Rocks to downtown Kingston on Saturdays.
Thirty of the German-made buses arrived in the island last November at a cost of $10 million each. They each carry 38 hard-shelled passenger seats and are outfitted with the Smart Card machines. Instead of using cash to pay fares, commuters will use the cards.
The buses will be distributed throughout the four depots of the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR). Eighteen of the new buses will be on the roads by the end of this month with the remaining 12 coming on stream by summer. All 30 vehicles should be in operation by September.
"The buses were funded by the Belgium Government and it was done for Jamaica at a very low concession rate," said Rennie Wellington, Managing Director of MKI, the dealership for the MAN group in the Caribbean and Central America. "I don't want to disclose the figure, but I would say it is under five per cent per annum."
On the return leg of the familiarisation trip of the route yesterday, Transport Minister Robert Pickersgill joined the excursion. He was asked what measures would be implemented to protect the JUTC from illegal competition, he replied that he would be speaking on the matter, "either before or during" his Budget presentation.
