‘Terrible disappointment’

Minister of Transport and Mining Audley Shaw has asserted that it is a “terrible disappointment” that an industry that is growing internationally and affording the efficient movement of people and cargo, has largely been out of commission in Jamaica for 30 years.

Jamaica began railway operations in 1845 and was where the first line opened to traffic outside Europe and North America, but services were discontinued in 1992.

“We are going to restore the railway service,” he said to a rousing applause during Tuesday’s symposium on railway engineering, hosted by the University of Technology, in partnership with the University of Birmingham.

The minister said major infrastructural work is needed islandwide in order to have the tracks repaired or replaced, and there is also the challenge of relocating informal settlements that are currently in proximity to the train tracks.

Shaw, who was born in Manchester, recalled that as a child, he took the train with his twin sister and mother from Kendall to Montego Bay for weekend church conventions.

“Thirty years now we have seen the closure of the railway service in Jamaica. This is unacceptable,” he said, adding that the memorandum of understanding signed between the University of Technology and the University of Birmingham has come at a time when the revitalisation of Jamaica’s railway is being explored as a vital part of the improvement of the country’s transportation system.

Shaw said the search for cost-effective air and land transport is on the rise, with the ministry now in the process of seeking electric and biodiesel buses for public transport as part of a pilot project.

“This naturally brings focus to the importance of a well-functioning railway system, as in order for a country to maximise on productivity and economic activity, people and goods must be able to move in an affordable way,” the transport minister said.

Shaw added that the rail service in Jamaica will remain a priority, and after decades of changing hands between the government and the private sector, the approach may be to return it to the private sector in order to make it a reality.