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JUTA Tours is planning to relaunch its Kingston-Montego Bay express bus route before year end, but now has to contend with one more rival – the Jamaica Urban Transit Company Limited, JUTC, operator of a public metropolitan bus system that recently added a rural express service.
The group of private transport operators, which already has to go up against well-established luxury coach operator Knutsford Express Services Limited, expects that the public bus company’s entry into that segment of the market will serve to crowd out other private enterprise.
“We think the JUTC should focus on providing public transportation in the Corporate Area, Montego Bay and urban St Catherine. We are concerned that what is happening right now will have serious implications on the service we are planning to provide,” Noel Williams, president of the JUTA Kingston chapter, said in an interview with the Financial Gleaner.
“We are planning to approach the government again to oppose this type of service,” Williams said. “We met with the prime minister and Minister (of Transport Daryl) Vaz just before the election and registered our displeasure even with the JUTC doing trips for funerals, schools and churches, because we are providing those same services which we cannot subsidise like the government,” he said.
The JUTC Rural Express service began October 1, with introductory fares of $2,000 for long-haul trips to and from Half-Way Tree in Kingston to Mandeville, Ocho Rios, Negril and Montego Bay; and from downtown Kingston to May Pen for $1,500.