Revitalisation Of Rail Service Will Bring Economic Benefits To Communities – Minister Montague
By: , May 27, 2021
Photo: Contributed
A passenger train on a test run from Spanish Town to Linstead on Thursday (May 20), in preparation for the school train programme, awaits the passage of a bauxite train in Bog Walk to continue on its journey. The service is slated to begin in September with trips from Spanish Town to Linstead and Old Harbour.The Full Story
Minister of Transport and Mining, Hon. Robert Montague, says that the impending revitalisation of railway service between downtown Kingston and Marcus Garvey Drive is expected to bring economic activities to the communities along the line.
The Minister, who was making his contribution to the 2021/22 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Wednesday (March 26), said that the service will “provide transportation and leisure trips or just… give train experience”.
He said that the train will stop in the communities along the line and allow persons to vend or offer other services, but pointed out that no “big-box” stores will be allowed.
“This is an opportunity for the ‘little-man’. Only people from these communities will be allowed to interact with passengers” he stressed.
The Minister said that there is also a plan to rent coaches to businesses to facilitate shopping while passengers ride. This, he said, would be the next project for the Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC).
The entity is partnering with the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information to transport schoolchildren from Old Harbour and Linstead into Spanish Town by rail.
Under the agreement, the JUTC will pick up the students at the Spanish Town Railway Station and drop them off at various schools in Spanish Town and the reverse would take effect in the afternoon.
In an interview with JIS News, JRC Acting General Manager, Donald Hanson, noted that since 2013 when services through the Bog Walk Gorge ceased, the trains have been kept active, as JRC has been running excursions for school children from Spanish Town to Linstead and back.
He said that there are also trains in Kingston with coaches that are used to take the children on rides in the JRC yard when the schools cannot afford the run to Linstead.
Mr. Hanson noted that many of the railway tracks have been paved over at road crossings, but said that the JRC intends to work closely with the National Works Agency to repair the tracks.