Transit Police Unit to monitor subfranchise system

Sheldon Williams, Gleaner Writer

A Transit Police Unit of the Jamaica Constabulary Force will be introduced shortly in the Kingston Metropolitan Region. The lawmen will enforce the Jamaica Urban Transit Company's (JUTC) regulations governing the subfranchise system.

Manager of the Franchise Protection and Inspection Department at the JUTC, Radcliffe Lewis, said "It was conceptualised by the commissioner of police. It should have been implemented one year and six months or two years ago, but because of a certain decision that was taken the whole implementation was shelved. But this new managing director (of the JUTC) has agreed to deal with that certain decision."

Lewis was speaking at a press conference held at the JUTC's Spanish Town, St Catherine, depot last Tuesday.

Among other things, the unit will monitor the issuing of tickets to passengers and ensure that buses do not divert from their routes. It will also stop the notorious 'loader men' from soliciting passengers for buses.

"The aim and objective is to prevent criminal activities and the safety of passengers and employees. Stop and check will be done to ensure contraband is not brought from one border to another border," Lewis said.

Patrol

The Transit Police will be uniformed and, at times, will travel on buses. "They will sometimes check buses to make sure there are no ticket infractions, and they will also assist with what we call 'drive and ride'. So one or two or three will be on a bus and their unit will drive behind, then they will go back on patrol," Lewis said.

He also advised passengers to ensure they are issued with tickets. "We are going to check all buses. Once a person is found on a bus without any ticket, that person is going to be arrested for travelling on a PPV without a ticket. So that is one of the things we are going to do to control these backup men and persons without a ticket," he warned.

Lewis emphasised that passengers can be charged under Section 46F of the Road Traffic Act and fined $100,000, or sentenced to serve six months' imprisonment if they knowingly travel on unlicensed public passenger vehicles.

However, he said, "That is not going to be enforced on the passengers abruptly. We are going to make sure we educate the commuters on what can happen if you travel in a vehicle other than a PPV. We know our system here and the hustling mentality. We know all of that, but we have to educate them on what can happen if they travel on any vehicle other than a PPV."

Under the new system, private operators' crews will also be issued with identification cards and subfranchise stickers. "It is like the regular licence sticker that you would have on your vehicle. It contains on it the JUTC logo, your control number and the valid year. The control number is very important, because you will be able to look at any subfranchise bus and know what number it is in the subfranchise," managing director of the JUTC, Colin Campbell, explained.

"We have found out in doing this exercise that for perhaps as much as half of the buses operating in the system the owner does not know the name of their driver. They can say 'Bigga' or 'Brown Man' or some other thing, but they cannot say the name of the driver. The ID system will help, because everyone must display their ID in the same way every JUTC driver displays his," Campbell said.

Eventually, subfranchise holders will be able to sell advertising spaces on their buses. "We are also going to open up the subfranchise buses to the advertising opportunities through JUTC, so in time when the marketing company that does advertising offer buses for ads, it will be possible for them to sell advertising space and the revenue goes to the subfranchise holders," Campbell said.

The JUTC's fleet will be boosted with the arrival of 73 new Volvo buses at the end of this month.