RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Passengers enter a Jamaica Urban Transit Company bus in the Half-Way Tree bus park yesterday.John Myers Jr., Staff Reporter
The commuting public will, as of tomorrow, begin paying $50 to travel on the state-owned Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC).The increase in bus fares was announced yesterday by Transport and Works Minister, Robert Pickersgill.
However, the fare remains unchanged at $15 for school children, pensioners and the physically challenged. Public sector workers have been exempted from paying the increased fares until March 2006, but only when they use a smart card. The card can be purchased at the Ministry of Water and Housing in New Kingston, the Central Sorting Office on South Camp Road and the Spanish Town Post Office with an identification card.
Children under five years old will not pay fares when accompanied by a guardian.
The fare for travelling on route taxis has also been increased by 25 per cent while the base rate for travel on hackney carriages
has been increased from $100 to $125 and from $13.50 to $16.90 for rural stage carriages.
Mr. Pickersgill, in announcing the new fares at a press conference at the Ministry of Transport and Works in Half-Way Tree, St. Andrew, yesterday, emphasised that "there has been nothing arbitrary about the way we have gone about determining the fare increase to be granted in the public transportation sector."
As regards to the JUTC, the Minister said, "the government can do no more regarding further subsidies to the company." According to Mr. Pickersgill, it would require an average 107 per cent increase in bus fares to bring the JUTC's operations in line with the real
economic cost of operating the
service.
The 38 per cent increase, he said, "will allow the JUTC to become viable, the company will be able to meet its debt obligations and provide a more predictable service to the public." Patrick McIntosh, president of the JUTC said the company should become viable by the next financial year.
But Pearnel Charles, the Opposition spokesman on transport does not believe the increase is sufficient to make the JUTC viable. "We are saying, whether 100 per cent or two hundred per cent, before the Government establishes certain principles and establish a proper transport system, it will not work," Mr. Charles said. According to him "it is the Government who made an announcement that they needed a 100 per cent to remain viable ... so I don't know how they can move from 100 per cent to 38 per cent".
Furthermore, Mr. Charles is maintaining that the JUTC cannot operate as a viable entity with the level of competition from private carriers operating on the same routes.
Mr. Pickersgill said yesterday the JUTC was working closely with the Transport Authority and the Transit Police unit to reduce the effect of illegal competition.
Currently, the Government puts up $1.24 billion to subsidise the operations of the JUTC, which costs an estimated $4.7 billion annually. The bus company generates an estimated $2.29 billion or 47 per cent of this amount from fares collected, leaving a shortfall of $1.27 billion.
