TODAY'S EDITORIAL flashback, elsewhere on this page, recalls a novel approach to public transportation broached a year ago by Minister of Transport Robert Pickersgill. The proposal was to retrofit JUTC buses to make use of the railway lines lying idle since the Jamaica Railway Corporation ceased operation in 1992.
Criticised at the time as a ridiculous notion, the idea seems to have been abandoned by the minister, since there has been no follow-up. The idea might have been prompted by the persistent failure to revive the rail service. Negotiations with Railtech Jamaica Ltd., an Indian/Canadian consortium, have borne no fruit, as far as we are aware.
In the meantime, the second phase of Highway 2000, which could challenge any prospect of a profitable return of the railway service, is scheduled to link up with the capital by year end, according to the most recent projections. That link-up should relieve what is perhaps the most congested traffic corridor in the island between Kingston and Spanish Town.
What was supposed to be the Spanish Town bypass has long ceased to function as its label implies. Indeed, traffic lights have been installed to regulate the movement of vehicles on that roadway seeking to avoid the meandering passage through the Old Capital.
The highway access to and from the Corporate Area is only one aspect of the public transportation problem that now faces the minister. The ever-increasing numbers of vehicles pose formidable problems of traffic congestion which will get worse, to judge by the many used-car lots which have been established not only in Kingston, but in townships throughout the country.
While there have been admirable improvements to a few of the main thoroughfares in the capital, the smooth flows they generate more often than not feed into bottlenecks that multiply at peak commuter times. These now become more frequent with the approach of the festive season.
We have fielded a multitude of commuter complaints about the hours spent in stalled traffic lines. These must surely reflect on commercial and economic productivity in the long run.
The ministry of transport should seek to tackle the problem by reference to traffic plans of the past which anticipated what is now the reality. We recall a proposal of the 1950s for a ring-road concept that some metropolitan cities have adopted which would provide access and exit from the outskirts of the urban centre.
That idea was supplanted in the 1960s-'70s by a proposed elevated throughway from Constant Spring via Kencot to Torrington Bridge. A consequential upsurge in property values put paid to that idea.
The relevant plans should still be available in ministry files. These should be studied to formulate a new approach to tackling an increasing problem of traffic congestion, especially in the urban centres.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
