New JUTC Buses to Be Sent to Depots This Weekend for New School Year

The Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) is in the process of licensing the 50 new buses that arrived in the island recently.

This will enable the buses to go out over the weekend to the various depots to be available in time for the new school year, which starts on Monday (September 4).

Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, Hon. Daryl Vaz, made the disclosure during the post-Cabinet press briefing held today (August 30), at Jamaica House.

Mr. Vaz explained that the JUTC is coming from a rollout of about 140 buses, up to a few weeks ago.

“The optimum is about 400 buses, so you can understand the frustration of the public. As of right now, based on emergency procurement of spare parts, we have been able to restore and rehabilitate 125 buses, which gives us 265 buses, without the 50 new buses,” Mr. Vaz said.

“With the 50 new buses we will have 315 buses on the road for back to school. This will alleviate a lot of the frustration and the waiting time, which has been up to two and a half hours for certain routes,” he added.

Regarding the allocation of buses, the Portmore depot will receive 120 units consisting of active, rehabilitated and new buses. This will include three 34-seater buses for the disabled community; seventeen 49-seater regular buses and 20 of the new buses.

The Spanish Town depot will receive two 34-seater buses for the disabled community and 15 regular 49-seaters. The total allotment will be 99 units, consisting of active, rehabilitated and new buses.

The Rockfort depot will receive five 34-seater buses and eight 49-seater buses, and the total allocation of buses will be 96.

“There is also improvement for the hill routes… 52, 53 and 54. The route from Papine to Half-Way Tree will see improvement and overall waiting time reduced,” Mr. Vaz said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Vaz announced that 20 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses have been ordered through a framework agreement.

“We are hoping to get six here by November and the other 14 by January 2024,” Mr. Vaz said.

He informed that Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, in his budget presentation, had committed the funding for 100 new electric buses in 2024/25 fiscal year and 100 in 2025/26.

Mr. Vaz noted that because of the situation at the JUTC now, he and the team from the Ministry are in active discussions with Minister Clarke and his team to see whether there is any possibility that an order for 100 buses can be done if the funding is available before the end of this financial year.

“Obviously, it has a procurement aspect to it, and I am hoping that this week I will have that meeting, so that we can come up with a final position in relation to how we go forward with a best-case scenario of being able to order those buses this financial year. This means that with a six-month lead time, we would be able to get those buses by the first half of 2024,” Mr. Vaz said.

He noted that this “would do a huge job in improving the transport [sector] with newer buses and new buses, bearing in mind that the average age of the fleet at the JUTC is between 12 and 14 years”.