EDITORIAL - Ministers should take bus to work

During the current fiscal year, that is, between April this year and the end of next March, Jamaicans, including many of the journalists of this newspaper, will make an estimated 58 million trips on the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), the bus service owned by the Government.

In effect, bus rides will increase by around three million, or five per cent, over the previous financial year, which is a positive thing. It will translate into an additional J$595 million, or a 19 per cent increase, in revenue to J$3.72 billion.

We are willing to wager that no member of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's Cabinet or any member of the legislature will contribute to these increases.

They should, however, take stock. For even with these improvements, JUTC - already burdened by accumulated losses of J$13.5 billion and another J$1 billion of debt - won't be out of the woods. It will lose another J$2.4 billion on its operations. Further, it will require an injection of more than J$6 billion from the Government to meet its capital spending.

Or, to put matters into perspective, the JUTC, although it provides a critical service to the commuters of the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region, is bankrupt, except for its shoring up by taxpayers.

Failing to woo riders

The real problem is that the JUTC does not entice enough commuters to ride its buses. The bulk of the capital's residents prefer private cars, minibuses or route taxes, a large number of which operate illegally.

A major challenge for the JUTC, therefore, is to persuade even more Jamaicans to get on to its buses, perhaps even an MP or two. Or, more.

Here is an idea for the PM, who has great charisma as well as skill in persuading people to vote for her party. She should combine those skills with the authority of her office to encourage people to ride the buses, starting with her ministers.

In that regard, she can take a leaf out of David Cameron's book.

As we reported on Monday, the British prime minister has urged his MPs to park their cars and use public transport to travel to the Olympic Games, which are about to get under way in London. That is what Mr Cameron will do.

Of course, many ministers are unhappy with the rule and the fact that they will not be allowed to have their chauffeur-driven cars speed along special Olympic lanes, established for athletes and officials to help ease the worsened traffic problem that is expected to accompany the Games.

Enhance public confidence

Government ministers riding the buses would help build public confidence in the system, and would, hopefully, be a catalyst for public officials and law-enforcement agencies to discourage indiscipline on our roads. At least there would not be that sense of a two-tiered system of commuting: luxury SUVs, mostly paid for or subsidised by taxpayers for MPs, and chaos for the rest of us.

Additionally, a good, efficient public transport system would help to increase national productivity and have the value of lessening the billions of dollars spent on importing vehicles and the petroleum to power them.

MPs perhaps don't know, or can't remember that far back, but the JUTC offers a relatively decent ride at a reasonable fare.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.