Editorial | Transport policies needed

Given the recent quarrels between the Government and the political Opposition over the administration’s pre-election announcement of major expansions to the mandate of the state-owned transportation company, the parties must urgently deliver what this newspaper has long requested and the public deserves: fulsome transportation policies and the premises upon which they rest.

These ought to be passing references in campaign manifestos issued on the eve of the general election, which is most likely to be held in early September. For, given the importance of public transportation to the national economy, and the huge amounts of money taxpayers’ put into the State’s portion of the system, voters should have a real opportunity to analyse and debate what either side, the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) or the People’s National Party (PNP), has on offer.

In recent weeks, the minister with responsibility for transport announced the acquisition of 110 second-hand school buses from the United States, to transport students in rural communities who largely rely, according to the Government, on uncertain route taxis. A full roll-out of the scheme will happen at the start of the new school year.

The Opposition questioned the transparency in how the deal was cut for the purchase of the school buses, as well as the suitability of left-hand drive units for Jamaica, including the fact that, unless the units are reconfigured, students will board and disembark the buses facing oncoming traffic.

SKETCHY

The Opposition suggested vaguely that, rather than introducing these buses, they would provide direct subsidies to families with schoolchildren, as well as expand the system already in place in some rural schools, by entering contractual arrangements with private bus and route taxis operators to transport students. The details of this plan, though, remain sketchy.

It is not only the school bus project the administration has been rolling out. In recent months it has expanded routes of the government’s Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), which primarily served the Kingston Metropolitan Region (KMR), to several rural areas. And, last week, it announced the launch of a long-distance express service, which, on its face, will compete with at least two private, high-quality providers of a similar service.

It is not clear where the JUTC will pitch its product. However, the J$2,000 introductory price the JUTC will reportedly charge appears, on its face, half the cost of the private operators.

This newspaper is reflexively sympathetic to any programme intended to improve the quality of Jamaica’s public transportation, especially in rural communities which have neither the range of service, nor enjoy the value of taxpayers’ subsidies to the JUTC. Moreover, good public transportation is vital to the functioning of modern economies.

However, as The Gleaner has argued before with respect to this matter, policies can’t rest on a whim. Clear social and economic bases have to underpin anything that is done.

Therefore, especially with respect to the JUTC’s proposed long-haul, express offering, there are questions about demand for the service and whether the state company will be subsidised to be in direct competition with the private sector.

DEEPER INTO POCKETS

This also leads to the broader financial state of the JUTC, and whether taxpayers will have to go deeper into their pockets to keep it afloat.

Indeed, outside of the administration’s capital outlay to buy new buses for the company, the JUTC, according to government budget documents, will lose J$6.97 billion this fiscal year. But that will be after a cash subsidy of just shy of J$11 billion, meaning that taxpayers will really facilitate the company to the tune of J$17 billion.

It is not clear whether, with the additional services, there will be more red ink on the company’s profit and loss accounts. Indeed, it is recalled, the government couldn’t sustain the cost of a specialised train service for some students.

But The Gleaner’s consistent insistence (twice in March) is beyond short-term economic considerations - although that is important, too – but because of transportation’s pivotal role in national development.

For instance, around 640,000 vehicles are registered to operate in Jamaica, and, last year, the Trade Board issued licences to import 58,477 more, at a value of over US$544 million.

Annually, more than US$200 million is spent on spare parts, and over a third of Jamaica’s petroleum imports (valued of US$1.97 billion in 2024) is used by ground transportation.

More and more Jamaicans aspire to private vehicle ownership. But most of these vehicles transport single passengers, who daily spend long periods in traffic gridlocks, leading to the loss of millions of man hours. Policymakers are consistently in a flurry to plan new roads, or to expand existing ones.

Consequently, the transport policies which The Gleaner requests from Mr Vaz and his opposition shadow, Mikael Phillips, have to be informed by where and how Jamaicans are expected to live; the structure of their communities; how transportation interfaces with how people work and recreate; and how transportation facilitates commuters and the movement of goods and services.