Montego Bay Metro will not succeed without new buses - Phillips

WESTERN BUREAU:

Opposition spokesman on Housing, Transportation and Works Mikael Phillips says the Montego Bay Metro Bus Company (MBMBC) needs approximately 60 new buses to bring it up to the level needed to properly meet the needs of the travelling public, especially students and the elderly.

At present, the MBMBC operates a dedicated school and municipal bus service that transports students from Montego Bay to the wider St James. The service is also extended to students who attend schools in neighbouring parishes, including William Knibb Memorial High and Wakefield Primary in Trelawny; Rusea’s High and Sandy Bay Primary and Junior High in Hanover; and Spot Valley High, Cambridge High, Goodwill and Adelphi Primary in rural St James.

However, Phillips believes the service being offered is far from desirable due to challenges with (among others) vehicle maintenance, which is primarily caused by the poor conditions of the road network.

“The Montego Bay Metro will not succeed without new buses being put into the system, and it needs about 60 new buses. We are operating now with less than 13 buses,” said Phillips. He remarked that if the MBMBC, which is a subsidiary of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), were a private sector company, its owners would have had to close it down because it is not measuring up to expectations.

“What we need to do now is fix the JUTC and look outside of the Kingston Metropolitan Area and Montego Bay into a rural bus system that will (see) schoolchildren getting the same benefits that those in Kingston ... are getting with a subsidised bus fare. And ensure that it is a balanced and equitable system that benefits schoolchildren and the elderly,” said Phillips.

Addressing the matter last May on the sidelines of the Caribbean Spectrum Management Conference, in St James, Transport Minister Daryl Vaz confirmed that the Government was mulling the idea of divesting the MBMBC.

“It is obvious that we are very short of buses, and we have to make some quick decisions in relation to whether or not we privatise MoBay Metro to make the private sector run it more efficiently, or we put more resources into it,” Vaz said then.

Vaz said further that an assessment would be done to determine how the bus company will respond to the increased demand expected to accompany the raft of developments taking place in western Jamaica.

The hope is that whoever acquires it will be able to create a service to meet the needs of the rapid growth in the western region.

“With the expansions that are happening in St James and the surrounding parishes, Hanover, Trelawny, Westmoreland, and in terms of the development and construction boom and hotel rooms, obviously, people are going to need more efficient transportation, which is a key part of the Government’s agenda,” said Vaz.