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Safe for students

Published:Sunday | October 13, 2013 | 12:00 AM
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Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing, Dr Morais Guy (second right), admires one of the buses. At right is chairman of the Transport Authority, Norton Hinds.
Dr Morais Guy inspects one of the 42 buses being used to transport students under the school transport programme in St Catherine.
Education Minister Ronald Thwaites (left) greets the driver of one of the buses contracted by Holmwood Technical High School.
Paul Bailey (left), principal of Holmwood Technical High School, greets students boarding one of the buses contracted by the newly implemented community school bus service.
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Positive returns from St Catherine, Holmwood bus systems

Chad Bryan, Sunday Gleaner Writer

The Transport Authority and St Catherine Bus Association have partnered to launch an authorised school-bus programme in the parish.

This was done before a similar system was introduced in Manchester, specific to Holmwood Technical High School, after four students were killed in a crash on the Chudleigh main road on September 25.

The St Catherine project was launched on September 2, at the start of the school year. The project sees approximately 40 contract operators providing transportation services, using Toyota Hiace buses, to students from basic, preparatory, primary, and high schools.

"There is no restriction to the level of schools the bus service is offered to. The age group is three to 17 years old," said communications manager at the Transport Authority, Petra-Keane Williams, who also said the project would be sustained.

On September 18, Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing, Dr Morais Guy, inspected the buses at the Waterford Seventh-day Adventist Church in Portmore, St Catherine.

NEED TO MODERNISE SYSTEM

During his address to the bus drivers, principals, teachers and students in attendance, Guy acknowledged the need to provide students with a modern transport system that is safe and friendly.

"There has been a need for a refreshing and modernising of our public-transport system. This school-bus programme signals a positive shift in our road-use culture - a shift that will afford our students a friendlier travel environment, a safer journey to and from school and a more efficient and comfortable mode of transportation," he said.

"Our students deserve no less while traversing our roads, and so I laud this new initiative. It's a bold step in the right direction."

Principal of Holmwood Technical, Paul Bailey, said the bus service has been doing well since its launch on October 7. It caters to more than 500 students commuting between Mandeville and the Christiana-based institution, utilising 11 Coaster buses, with two larger buses capable of transporting 60 students each.

"I must say that so far, it has been going pretty well. I must also say that there have been a few teething pains, but we're trying to work out the kinks and it's doing quite well," Bailey said.

He also pointed out that the students have bought into the school-bus idea.