KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), which discontinued route 81 and stopped providing bus service for Allman Town and its environs four years ago, now says it is willing to discuss with the Transport Authority ways of modifying the bus route.

In the wake of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Council (KSAMC) passing a resolution calling for the JUTC to provide a sub-franchise to enable eligible taxi operators to legally operate on route 81, Cecil Thoms, corporate communications manager of the JUTC told OBSERVER ONLINE that the organisation was willing to do surveys on the corridor.

Thoms said that the JUTC was willing to have dialogue with the Transport Authority to determine if the JUTC needed to modify the existing routes or to have two different routes.

People’s National Party councillor for the Allman Town division, Charmaine Daniels, who moved the resolution at the recent council meeting, said that residents and children attending schools along the route had no reliable transportation as a result of the discontinuation of the bus service. She said that the absence of the service had impacted economic and social activities in the division.

When it was in service bus route number 81 traversed Church Street, North Street, South Camp Road, Glenmore Road and Elletson Road, Daniels said.

Daniels also noted that students attending St George’s College, Kingston College, Holy Trinity High School, the Alpha group of schools, Jessie Ripoll Primary, Clan Carthy High School, Rollington Town Primary, Dunoon Park Technical High, Kingston Technical and Camperdown High School were negatively impacted by the absence of formal transportation.

Meanwhile, Thoms told OBSERVER ONLINE that Route 81 was closed in February 2018 because of low demand for the service in relation to the operating costs.

He said that after the service was discontinued, the JUTC, through advertisements on its website and in the newspapers, tried to sub-franchise 12 spots/spaces for taxi operators to provide transportation for citizens along the route.

When the JUTC did not receive any applications, they decreased to six, the number of spots/spaces on route 81 that they were inviting taxi operators to apply for, Thoms added.

Additionally, at the council meeting, PNP councillor Eugene Kelly, (Whitfield Town division) and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillors Alvin Francis, (Mavis Bank division,), John Myers (Lawrence Tavern division, Kari Douglas (Trafalgar Park division) and Duane Smith (Chancery Hall division) expressed support for the resolution and said that more buses were urgently needed to transport school children.