- FileThere are no set fares or a regulated bus system for public transportation in areas outside of the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR) and the Montego Bay Metropolitan Transport Region (MMTR).
Klao Bell, Staff Reporter
SOME commuters in the rural sections of Jamaica are spending as much as $600 a week or 40 per cent of their salaries on transportation.
There are no set fares or a regulated bus system for public transportation in areas outside of the Kingston Metro-politan Transport Region (KMTR) and the Montego Bay Metropolitan Transport Region (MMTR). Commuters in the countryside rely on route or robot taxis and minibuses to get around, and, being privately owned and unregulated, market forces determine the fares.
Kerisha Rowe travels four days weekly from Lyssons to Golden Grove in St. Thomas to attend evening classes. The approximately 18 mile journey costs the unemployed mother of two, $230 per day.
"I have to take three taxis, $50 from Top Hill in Lyssons to Morant Bay; then $40 to Golden Grove from Morant Bay. When I'm coming home at night, it's $40 from Golden Grove to Morant Bay and $100 from Morant Bay to Top Hill."
A trip of the same distance in the KMTR, from Constant Spring to downtown Kingston is $25 and from downtown to Spanish Town, St. Catherine is $20.
Operating costs
But as managing director of the Transport Authority (TA) Commander John McFarlane explains it, distance is a minor factor when considering cost.
"Rural area providers operate under very bad road conditions, there's wear and tear, insurance and licensing fees," Cmdr. McFarlane said.
Route taxis operators pay $4,250 for licences while insurance costs can range from $18,000 to a $100,000 a year and more, say insurance companies.
Prices are also influenced by the people's willingness to pay as some find the fares reasonable, Kimie Kawa Burton of Manchester agrees.
"I don't think the money is expensive, it has been that way for a long time," she said, even though her $150 lunch money is constricted by the $40 return fare to her school some four miles away in Perth Road. Ms. Burton wasn't aware that school children in Kingston and some parts of Montego Bay pay a standard fare of $5 on any route, for any stage.
While transportation in Kingston is "subsidised" by the Government's underwriting of millions of dollars in debts to keep JUTC bus service afloat, there are no subsidies for rural transport. The only available benefit is a general 20 per cent concession on buses imported for use in the transport sector.
Private
Rural area transportation has long been the domain of private entrepreneurs. It was only in 1987 that the Transport Authority started taking steps to regularise taxi and minibus operations by issuing licences.
"There is a greater demand on transportation than before, the need of people to move quickly is satisfied by the availability of vehicles. We decided to step in to license these persons as an effort to begin to find a way to bring some order to the system," Cmdr. McFarlane said.
There are more than 8,000 route taxi operators in rural areas providing service, especially to residents in communities where minibuses do not venture because of the distance and road condition.
Though convenient, transportation on demand costs Philiphar Hamilton $155 per day to make the 18 mile journey from Hunts Town to Highgate, in St. Mary. This route captures 40 per cent of her monthly salary.
Rose Sherman of St. Elizabeth sometimes has to stop her two grandchildren from school when she can't meet the $800 per week it costs to get them from Goshen to Balaclava.
"When mi give them $500 from Monday, it only serve them three days, then I have to give them $300 to carry them to Friday an is only for bus fare...we try to send them to school but sometimes dem stop two and three days," Mrs. Sherman said.
