Linstead warms up to talk of rolling trains
Published:Tuesday | June 8, 2021 | 12:11 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
The comfort and safety of a train ride beat the chaos and disorder of other modes of public transport, according to Lattala Lee Smith, which is why the Linstead, St Catherine, businesswoman is in favour of reviving the passenger rail service once offered by the Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC).
She is convinced that the congestion in the busy mid-island town – where a combination of conductors, drivers and loader men orchestrate mayhem against their passengers each day without any end in sight – could be eased with rail service.
“The transport system in Linstead, I am one person who is really scared of it, afraid bad. Sometimes when you out there you can’t even get a vehicle and the loader guys them assault you. Sometimes when you go in the bus and you want to relax, there is this loud music. It is just so annoying and you can’t concentrate. If you get a phone call, you can’t tell them to turn down the music because them ready to tell you to get off the bus and take another,” she told The Gleaner on Monday.
By contrast, the railway cars of old were much more spacious and with more comfortable seats, she recalled. Even for standing passengers, there was less crowding.
Lee Smith harbours good memories of the Linstead station, where she launched her business journey, operating a stall serving peanut and hominy corn porridges, which were prepared to coincide with the arrival of the first coach at 5:30 and the next at 8:30 in the mornings.
By midday the menu was again another piping hot item – soup, with corn on the side, and over time, snacks, sweets and other items would be added to her stock to meet customers’ demands.
From that humble start, which saw her having to get up early each morning and spend long hours on her feet, her customer base grew, as did her business savvy and asset base. So by the time the JRC shuttered its operations again, Lee Smith was in a better financial position and able to rent a section of the station and expand her business from a more secure and larger location.
Things were good for a while, but over time, business declined, and when a friend offered to give her a shipping container on credit, she jumped at the opportunity and placed it in the same general area but with much more visibility. So she gave up the electricity arrangement and the power supply to the station was subsequently disconnected, and Lee Smith moved into a more secure space which allowed her to offer a more diverse range of products, which she operates with her son, Khalil Brown.
Even before Transport Minister Robert Montague used his Sectoral Debate presentation to announce that the Government had plans to resume passenger rail service between Spanish Town and Old Harbour in September, residents of Linstead knew that something was afoot.
JRC personnel had come around and started to clean out the station, which, over time, had been taken over by pigeons. Refurbishing has also started with furnishings to facilitate its transition to a ticketing booth along with other necessary changes.
In addition, the old and dilapidated stationmaster’s house, which sits on an elevation overlooking the station, has been visited by the JRC staff and plans are also in place to repair it for the reopening.
Despite getting their hopes up for a revival of the passenger rail service after a test run in 2011 from May pen in Clarendon to Linstead in St Catherine and the talks coming to naught, residents are hoping that this time around the trains will roll out – 10 years later.
In keeping with this reawakening, there is one other issue that businesspeople who operate in the general area would like to see addressed – an overflowing garbage skip at the entrance to the premises at the intersection of Fletchers Place and Grove Road, which poses a serious threat as vehicles are force to swerve from garbage.
Markie, who operates the car wash right next to station, said he has been contending with the eyesore and public health risk for some time. He explained that in response to their pleas, the authorities had provided more garbage drums, but people from other communities continued to drive by and throw their garbage from moving vehicles and it gets scattered all over the road.
He and Lee Smith agreed that if this issue is not addressed in time for the resumption of the rail service, it could put a damper on things.