Busmen demand amnesty in talks with Shaw, cops

After two consecutive days of protest action, transport operators who ply sections of St Andrew West Rural have called for a traffic ticket amnesty and have pledged to hold police and other state authorities accountable after airing grouses at a meeting on Tuesday.

The busmen operating on the Golden Spring to Half-Way Tree route withdrew their services on Monday and Tuesday, causing chaos for thousands of commuters who were left stranded in Half-Way Tree, Stony Hill, and other areas.

The transport operators had wide-ranging grouses, including poor road conditions, police harassment, a desire for increased fares, and the removal of at least six bus stops along the route following the expansion of Constant Spring Road.

During their second day of strike action, a meeting was convened with Transport and Mining Minister Audley Shaw; Transport Authority officials; traffic chief Assistant Commissioner of Police Gary McKenzie; Egeton Newman, president of the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS), and other stakeholders.

Following the meeting, Newman told The Gleaner Tuesday that the operators were pleased with the discussions and were told their issues would be addressed.

“The meeting went well. Scores of bus operators were in attendance. Some of the issues that were looked at were the issue of tint, and whether buses should be wrecked for having tints, because several buses were wrecked last week Tuesday by the police. So we looked at that and we came to understanding that the buses should not be wrecked for tints,” Newman said.

The TODSS executive also claimed that much of the ticketing of taxi and bus operators was unwarranted and urged Shaw to lobby his Cabinet colleagues for the imposition of an amnesty.

“The minister promised to look into the matter and to speak to his colleagues, which are the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Justice,” said Newman.

Newman told The Gleaner that the removal of bus stops along Constant Spring Road between Manor Park and Phil’s Hardware has caused problems for bus operators, whose passengers reportedly demand drop-offs at the original sites.

Those infractions have earned the wrath of police personnel assigned to the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch.

“That’s a major challenge to the bus operators, because they need the bus stops, and the new bus stops are put up at places and the commuters don’t want to come off there for security reasons, especially the students,” Newman said.

The TODSS leader said that Shaw had committed to having dialogue with the National Works Agency (NWA), which determines the installation of bus stops.

Newman said that there were no hard timelines for deliverables coming out of what has been described as a cordial meeting.

He said the operators were aware that the amnesty decision could not be made overnight, but he is hopeful that the bus stops can be repositioned in a matter of weeks, if the NWA accedes to their request.

“We are going to be watching the situation. He said we must return to him as early as possible,” Newman said of Shaw.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com