Railway service to be restored for Diamond Jubilee celebrations

The restoration of Jamaica’s railway service will be one of the proposed milestone projects to be undertaken by the Government in recognition of the nation’s 60th independence celebration.

Minister of Transport and Mining, Audley Shaw, said the phases of the rehabilitation would be funded by the private sector.

On August 6, 2022, the nation will celebrate its 60th anniversary of independence.

In February, during a signing ceremony for an expansion project at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St James, Shaw said that under his administration, the railway system from Montego Bay to Kingston, which has been out of service since 1992, would be reopened.

At that event, he stressed that Jamaica’s railway service, which was built in 1845, should not be allowed to remain unused.

Shaw believes that Jamaica’s rail system can be returned to its former glory.

“I’m confident it can be, and not to its former glory alone, but to higher levels of efficiency and technology because the rail service worldwide has moved very dramatically in terms of its technology, the efficiency of its operations and in Jamaica,” Shaw said.

“ We’ve locked down our service 30 years ago and we got a rail service in Jamaica before the United States of America had one, and we owe it a duty to restore our rail service in Jamaica and to put it to higher levels of technology,” he added.

Shaw emphasised that there are current targets for the western end of the island with regard to the railway service.

“I’m not able to give you a timeline yet, but it’s going to come in stages. As you know, we’ve started out with a school programme from Linstead and Bog Walk,” he said.

Shaw said he met with the Development Bank of Jamaica and a final proposal is being prepared for Cabinet. This, he said, will lead to the launch of the Montego Bay to Appleton rail service primarily for tourists.