Wed | Apr 24, 2024

Two trains, three students

JRC anticipates numbers will pick up after dismal first day, mulls expanding service

Published:Tuesday | September 6, 2022 | 12:09 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Pause
Only three students arrived on the train from Linstead to Spanish Town, St Catherine, yesterday morning as the new school year began. No passenger had arrived on the one three minutes earlier, which covered the Old Harbour route.
Kenyon Hemans/Photographer
Only three students arrived on the train from Linstead to Spanish Town, St Catherine, yesterday morning as the new school year began. No passenger had arrived on the one three minutes earlier, which covered the Old Harbour route.
With bullhorn in hand, Shaunice Bignall-Young met the arriving train at the Spanish Town Railway Station on Monday to marshal the students to their connecting shuttles en route to school, but the anticipated ridership did not materialise.
Kenyon Hemans/Photographer
With bullhorn in hand, Shaunice Bignall-Young met the arriving train at the Spanish Town Railway Station on Monday to marshal the students to their connecting shuttles en route to school, but the anticipated ridership did not materialise.
1
2

Only three youngsters and two adults were on board the train from Linstead to Spanish Town in St Catherine, which arrived at its destination at 7:15 a.m. on Monday as the new school year began.

The train from Old Harbour to the parish capital had pulled in three minutes earlier with empty carriages.

Despite this, Vernon Dixon, operations officer at the Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC), is optimistic that ridership will increase in the days ahead.

He said this was not an unusual occurrence, recalling that ridership was just as low when the commuter rail service was introduced in January “even though it could not have gotten any lower than this morning”, he said.

Dixon revealed that the JRC has been considering expanding the railway service to include the general student body of the six St Catherine schools that were a part of the Back on Track School Train Service, rather than just students enrolled in the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) as originally intended.

“We have had a couple of students from other schools who would have wanted to ride and I suppose the discussion will have to be taken whether they are accommodated,” he said.

With an average of more than 100 students utilising the service daily since January, Dixon said that the expansion could see ridership at a level to make the company relatively comfortable in terms of profitability.

Dixon said that the JRC was anticipating that most schools would have been fully reopened yesterday, but based on the low turnout, it was apparent that the majority of schools were still undergoing the orientation process.

One train operator informed The Gleaner that he anticipated that by Wednesday, both trains will see an increase in the number of students aboard.

Another JRC employee said work on getting the trains running smoothly started last Friday, when both the engine and carriages were moved for maintenance.

Children of school age who rely on the public transit system are given access to safe and affordable transportation through the cashless service.

The Jamaica Urban Transit Company partners with the JRC to provide buses to transport students of Jonathan Grant High, St Jago High, José Martí High and St Catherine High.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com