Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
POTENTIAL FINANCIAL fallout from the imminent Portmore toll has forced the already unprofitable Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) to mull over new strategies including adjusting some bus routes.
Gwyneth Davidson, JUTC marketing and public relations manager, told The Gleaner yesterday that the public bus company was not contemplating seeking an increase in bus fares to offset the additional cost.
However, she said the company is busily strategising cost-effective mechanisms geared towards overriding any additional operating costs that might arise.
BREAKING EVEN
"It is going to be a cost that we are not incurring now and the company is not profitable ... We are really striving to break even, so we are putting in various strategies in place to militate against this operating cost, which is the toll," she explained.
Mrs. Davidson said on any given working day, JUTC buses would cross the toll booth more than 100 times.
One of the mechanisms to come on stream shortly is a reshuffling of routes that originate in Portmore and travel along the Highway 2000 corridor.
"Over the next month we will be returning some Portmore routes into Portmore via the Nelson Mandela Highway instead of over the causeway."
She added: "But, this will only be during the morning period so it will affect very few people and it will not affect persons' final destinations." Mrs. Davidson explained that not all 23 routes originating in Portmore would be affected by the shift.
At the same time, Robert Pickersgill, Minister of Housing, Water, Transport and Works, disclosed yesterday that the toll rates would be announced on July 7, which is less than a week before the toll road is slated to open.
A release from the ministry said that the notice of intention to make a toll order would appear in the daily newspapers by today announcing the toll cap and inviting comments. The deadline for submissions to be made by the public will be seven days and will end on July 4.
