Coasting to crisis - JATOO head sees trouble in Toyota transition

Sheldon Williams, Gleaner Writer

Some private Toyota Coaster bus operators will continue to operate within the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR) well after the April 1 deadline for them to be withdrawn from the public transportation sector under the previous arrangement.

The ones which will remain have been granted sub-franchise routes by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC). For others, however, their livelihood remains uncertain.

"Those who have not been granted a permit, we are appealing to them to see if they can do any form of adjustment to put them somewhere in the system. It may cause some overcrowding, but we have to work it out. We are appealing to the Transport Authority to give these persons who are being kicked out of the system a chance to operate, because they already have their buses. And you are talking about big buses, 28-seaters and so. They need somewhere to go; they can't just have their millions of dollars sitting down on. If you leave it to them they will operate illegally, because they have to have an income," president of the Jamaica Association of Transport Owners and Operators (JATOO), Louis Barton, said.

The JUTC has approved 319 licences from 368
private bus applicants to work within the KMTR. The JATOO chairman said
the Coaster buses will have to be redone in the JUTC's colours, which
will incur further expense. "This may cost up to $150,000. It must be
done before you get your licence and go to the inspection. You not only
have to spray, you have to do the bodywork. It just doesn't make sense,"
Barton said.

Transition

Barton
reasoned that it will not be a smooth transition after April 1 and
deemed certain stipulations unreasonable. He said some Coaster bus
operators received licences to work on trunk routes, but the price is
unaffordable. "The minister gave an extra 30 operators the permission to
operate on those routes ... routes that we were not supposed to be on,
such as downtown to Half-Way Tree or the Duhaney Park route and those
routes going up to Papine," Barton said.

"They are
saying those routes were exclusively for them and so JATOO called a
meeting and they said they would grant us 30. We are happy for that,
only to find out that each of those routes is costing $756,000. The
highest amount of current licences that we pay for anywhere in the KMTR
is $360,000 - call it $300,000, because $60,000 or thereabout goes to
the Transport Authority," he continued.

Barton
expressed outrage and said the cost puts Coaster operators in a dilemma.
"That is totally ridiculous to us. They just cannot pay it, and, if
they pay it, they can't take it up. If they don't take it up, then the
commuters will be faced with a shortage of buses on those routes because
the JUTC cannot fill them, no matter what they are saying. They don't
have enough buses presently to fill them. So there will be a shortage of
buses and seats on those routes," Barton
reasoned.

Run-down buses

And if
operators accept the expensive routes, Barton said, commuters could be
faced with run-down buses.

"If they do take it up, then the social
condition of the buses will deteriorate, because they won't have enough
money to take care of them. It seems as if the Government, whether
Jamaica Labour Party or People's National Party, does not have a plan to
effectively involve private operators in transporting passengers within
the KMTR. I think that's a mindset coming from the Middle Passage,
where the conditions were terrible," he said.

Barton
said some Coaster buses were also put on routes designated for Hiace
buses, and that will lead to saturation. "For example, the buses going
to Above Rocks and Border into Kingston, there is now a total mix-up of
Coaster buses and 16-seaters. It seems to be unplanned and, because of
this, it will open it up to illegal operators, and that's what those
operators want, so they can just fit in," Barton opined.

He added that
some operators might be tempted to work outside of the route they are
licensed for.

"You take chances to survive. Some buses from outside the
KMTR will come in and work in the KMTR because there is no business
outside the KMTR, yet they were given a licence to work there," Barton
said.