Errol Hewitt, Contributor 
Hewitt
So often decisions taken in this country seem inexplicable. Proffered explanations usually seem incomplete, taking us no nearer to an understanding of just what was taken into account when the decision was made.
The previous administration, not having the requisite funds for the new highway, but seemingly eager for an accomplishment, retained the contractor to finance, build and operate, using the collected toll to recoup investment and profit. To ensure this, the agreement would have the Jamaican government either increase the toll or compensate the contractor if there is any reduction in traffic levels over the toll road caused by "the carrying out of works by or on behalf of the Government of Jamaica which:
(a) Provides a new rail public transport passenger link between Spanish Town and Kingston; or
(b) Enhances the speed or capacity of competing roads within the transport corridor served by the toll road."
NEGOTIATING PROCESS
The contractor was a very able negotiator; was anyone negotiating for us? The highway parallels the old railway lines for some distance and, therefore, based on the agreement, cannot be developed for passenger service. Nor can th roadways be upgraded substantially.
Much time has passed and even deaths on its surface but, surprisingly, we have not yet seen any major projects linked to the toll road, only hazy whispers about a (ironically) millennium programme. Given the long-term suffocating restrictions what, apart from social/domestic use of the highway, did we get?
There is an extensive islandwide network of roads in the counties of Cornwall and Middlesex terminating in Spanish Town/Kingston. Of particular relevance, however, is the network for southern Jamaica and especially that corridor between Mandeville and Spanish Town/Kingston which accommodates linkages from Christiana/Spaldings, May Pen and Old Harbour, etc.
This corridor serves heavy daily travel to work, school and normal commercial activities between the parishes of Manchester, Clarendon, St. Catherine, Kingston and St. Andrew. The traffic becomes increasingly dense as one progress towards Kingston - the business, political and employment centre of the island. This corridor through these parishes potentially serves a population of about 1.7 million people, i.e., about 60 per cent of the national population.
The mothballing of a potential rapid rail transit system comes at a time when increasingly worldwide, this is becoming the essential means of public transport between rural and urban centres, with light rail supported by buses and taxicabs within the city. The benefits are its superior energy efficiency, passenger capacity, reliable scheduling and cost effectiveness - these underscored by the reality of oil now passing the US$90 per barrel barrier.
While there is known oil in the ground, major discoveries 30 years ago, such as those in the North Sea and on the North Slope of Alaska, are drying up. This, in addition to the emergence of the new super economies - Brazil, China, India etc. - has created intense pressure to secure supplies. The current and projected demand is so frenetic that developers are going to 'the ends of the earth' for new sources, spending over US$200 billion last year to develop new energy projects.
PRACTISING ENERGY EFFICIENCY
The search includes four-mile deep wells in the Gulf of Mexico, Norway's Snohvit, 340 miles within the Arctic Circle, horizontal wells on the Russian island of Sakhalin, etc. Additionally, since 1999 the discovery and development costs have tripled. This is an ever increasingly expensive product and practical wisdom would insist on intensely practising energy efficiency.
To underscore that point, J. Robinson West, chairman of PFC Energy, has stated that there are no "easy barrels left. The only barrels are going to be the tough barrels". The realisation of these facts are being acted on in North America, Europe, Asia and Southern Africa with serious efforts for greater energy efficiency and embracing cost- effective rapid rail mass transit.
OUR SITUATION
Our addiction to individual use of motor vehicles is evidenced both in our inelastic demand for oil, irrespective of its cost, and government's acceptance of the referred-to toll road clauses, which are contradictory to global conventional wisdom.
The major users of oil in Jamaica are bauxite/alumina processing (36.1 per cent); electricity generation (24.3 per cent); and amazingly, road transportation (22.2 per cent).
Our very inelastic demand for oil is further evidenced by the fact that our import bill for oil last year grew in volume by 9 per cent and in cost by about 30 per cent to US$1.7 billion. This is about 70 per cent of the earnings of our merchandise exports and is likely to reach US$2 billion for 2007. At this rate, in a few years the entire proceeds of our merchandise exports may be needed to purchase oil.
How can we finance social and economic development if so much of our national earnings are spent burning tyres on the asphalt? Reality is that positive economic growth over the last 20-plus years has rarely been achieved, and with imported oil satisfying over 90 per cent of our energy needs, we need to squeeze every dollar's value out of every barrel of oil. Such a pledge was made in the midst of the oil crisis triggered by the 1973 Yom Kippur war along with a commitment to introduce speedily, renewable energy programmes. Since then we have had sporadic oil crises, including the Gulf war, 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq.
Each time there has been a surge of good intentions which speedily dissipate thereafter. We are like the drug addict who swears to get off the wagon but grabs the very next fix offered. Our euphoric fixes over time have been the offerings of two Venezuelan presidents, Perez and now Chávez and as soon as we receive our fix, all else is forgotten as we soar in ecstasy instead of folding these benefits into our rehabilitation programme. Our lack of persistency has cost us dearly over the years and even today, our transport policy is incomplete and unrelated to our energy policy as is clearly shown in the toll road agreement.
THE REALITY
Our reality is that jobs are a powerful magnet and the fact that most jobs are in urban areas and especially so in Kingston has been the core factor behind the rural to urban migration. Over time the city has become suffocatingly congested, housing prices have soared resulting in the increase of squatting, inner cities and an ongoing search for affordable housing on the city's periphery and beyond. This has resulted in a string of dormitory communities extending mostly westwards from Portmore to May Pen and beyond. Decades of poor public bus service has concretised an original orientation of one man, one car to a fixation which some insist is an aping of North American practice. But if it is, it is a mimicking of a weekend practice and not the weekday reliance on mass rail transit into the city with light rail supported by the bus and taxicabs within the city.
Public transportation in Kingston though improved still tests the sanity of many of its users. The reliance on the motor vehicle is not necessarily matched by a high income and many for example, find the daily use of the toll road too expensive and therefore use th routes as often as time allows. But the congestion in the city streets and the approaches to the city are of such that it's an increasing habit for motorists to have breakfast in the midst of the traffic. The present described gridlock for our travelling public shows no sign of any solution and the significant emission of carbon monoxide continues apace.
The ready answer to these circumstances as shown internationally is the mass rapid rail transit which has not only proven its superior cost effectiveness, energy efficiency and reliability but doubles during off peak hours to enhance the socio-economic potential of small communities by linking them to the wider nation. These latter communities are usually by-passed by highway systems and gradually fade away. Internationally the evidence shows that where there is quick affordable rail transit into the city, the local community benefits substantially from the expertise, experience and added financing brought by dormitory residents and many who in fact return to the family home or its environs. Our railway was established in 1845 just a few years after the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in England and the United States's Baltimore and Ohio Railway began operations in 1830. Its full return to Jamaica will not only resolve an increasingly pressing problem but could well lead to the revival of small townships such as Richmond, Maggoty and Balaclava which expired when the railway was withdrawn.
Our new Prime Minister has promised to re-open discussions on this agreement. It is hoped that this time our side will 'bring home the bacon' .
Errol Hewitt is an information and communication technology planning consultant with the United Nations and the Commonwealth Secretariat. He may be contacted at estahewitt@yahoo.com
