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No 'fare' of fire - Recent bus blazes not affecting passenger volume

Published:Sunday | September 22, 2013 | 12:00 AM
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Articulated buses which have been procured by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company to bolster its fleet this year. - Contributed
The driver of a Jamaican Urban Transit Company (JUTC) bus on the Meadowbrook route moves to put out a fire which was started deliberately in 2009. - File
A Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) employee takes images of the engine of a JUTC bus which caught fire on Arthur Wint Drive, adjacent to the Bustamante Hospital for Children, last week. Driver Wilmot Brodber said he was alerted to smoke coming from the rear of the vehicle. He stopped to let off all the passengers then noticed fire coming from the engine. File
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Chad Bryan • Gleaner Writer

Despite fires on two Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) buses in recent weeks, the state transport company's Marketing and Communication Manager Clinton Clarke, said there is no indication of a fall off in passengers on the affected routes.

"There is no empirical evidence to suggest that there has been any fall off in passengers on these routes," Clarke said.

On September 5, a JUTC bus which costs between $20 and $30 million, was damaged by fire at the intersection of Mona Road and Wellington Drive in St Andrew. Two weeks later, fire damaged the rear section of another JUTC bus along Arthur Wint Drive.

The rapid response of firefighters prevented the fire from spreading to other sections of the vehicle.

Those buses are not the only JUTC units to have been damaged by fire. In 2008, fire damaged several buses at the company's depot in Portmore, St Catherine . It was reported that at some time before 12 a.m. fire was seen coming from the compound by residents and an alarm was raised. Four buses were damaged.

Then in 2009, footage of a young man settinga JUTC bus alight by igniting a piece of cardboard in a plastic bag was caught on a surveillance camera in the bus. The damage was estimated at $400,000.

Clarke explained that JUTC buses go through the same fire-testing rigours as other vehicles.

"Buses go through the same processes, just like any other heavy duty vehicle. We have to make sure they are extremely roadworthy because they are transporting people," he said. "We have never arrested anyone for arson, however," he added.

Clarke said that the JUTC buses come equipped with fire extinguishers and that drivers are trained to use them. However, at the time of the Mona Road fire, chairman of the JUTC, Garnett Roper, admitted that there were no working fire extinguishers on the bus and that the company's management had been asked to revisit the training process.

Like Clarke, Roper also said the state-owned bus company faces no problems from arsonists.

The JUTC rolls out 360 buses daily to satisfy the needs of the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region, but has 380 - 400 buses available. There are plans to put 20 more articulated buses on the road next month.