The Jamaica City Transit Firm (JUTC) fleet has been boosted with the arrival of 63 new compressed pure fuel (CNG) buses.
Minister of Science, Power, Telecommunications and Transport, Hon. Daryl Vaz, and a workforce consisting of JUTC Managing Director, Owen Ellington, and Managing Director of Stewart’s Automotive Group, Duncan Stewart, have been on web site at Kingston Wharves on Thursday (June 19), to witness the arrival of the Yutong buses.
The Minister famous that arrival of the buses is a fulfilment of his dedication to offer the JUTC with 100 buses per yr for 3 years.
“We at the moment are in yr two and already the second hundred buses are as a consequence of arrive in Jamaica. Sixty-three buses arrived right now and are being unloaded. One other thirty coach diesel buses for excursions/charters will arrive on July 9 and one other seven CNG buses for [persons with disabilities] will arrive in August of 2025. So, I’ll ship on the second hundred buses inside the first three months of the brand new monetary yr,” Mr. Vaz outlined.
He identified that with the newest arrival of buses, the JUTC now has extra new buses in its fleet than older ones.
Mr. Vaz mentioned the brand new CNG buses will function out of the Spanish City depot, the place a brand new CNG fueling facility is now below development and anticipated to be accomplished by the final week of August.
“These buses that at the moment are at Spanish City might be redeployed in some cases to enhance the present service and to proceed to increase the routes. So, this can be a sport changer for public transport in Jamaica,” the Minister mentioned.
He famous that the JUTC has been seeing fewer complaints in current months and recommended the JUTC administration for offering improved service to residents.
Mr. Vaz identified that the brand new buses will positively contribute to service supply, as they’ll scale back wait occasions on vital routes.
Every bus has a full capability of as much as 80 passengers distributed between seated and standing.
The Minister defined that the buses will do a median of six journeys per day every, transporting at most capability a complete of 480 passengers per bus per day.
This implies the total cohort of 70 CNG buses (the remaining seven are to reach in August) will be capable of transport 33,600 passengers per day.
“That’s going to enhance present routes, increase routes, and most significantly, deliver the wait time for passengers down,” Mr. Vaz affirmed.
In his remarks, Mr. Ellington suggested that data concerning the routes that the brand new buses might be positioned on is to be put within the public area shortly, so commuters can start to anticipate the elevated seats on their routes.
“Now we have completed some service planning forward of the arrival of those buses, so we all know the routes which can be presently underserved and require further seats,” the Managing Director mentioned.
He famous that the brand new CNG buses deliver the JUTC’s operable fleet to roughly 350 models.
The brand new buses have been procured by the Ministry, by way of the Stewart’s Automotive Group.
The dealership’s Managing Director emphasised that the state-of-the-art 12-metre 51-seat CNG buses will ship superior service to the commuting public.
“Among the highlights of the buses are that we’ve extra space within the bus, so the leg room and shoulder room within the bus is superior; the bus is supplied with air suspension, so it is vitally snug even on our roads and we’ve superior gasoline economic system, and this is essential for JUTC’s operations,” Mr. Stewart defined.
The buses are additionally outfitted with air suspension, permitting them to decrease for passengers to board, and charging ports for cellular gadgets.
