200 new buses to be added to the JUTC's fleet in 2024/25

The Government will be procuring 200 additional electric buses for the state-run Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) over the next three years, starting with the 2023/24 financial year.

These are in addition to the 70 new buses already on order and being delivered.

The announcement came on Tuesday from Finance Minister as he opened the 2023/24 Budget Debate.

He said this investment was crucial, given the significant slide in the JUTC’s capacity “to fulfill its mandate to provide 31,000 seats per day to meet the demand of commuting public within the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR), requiring 450 – 500 buses.”

“The current JUTC budget assumes an average daily bus deployment of less than two hundred (200) buses. Of the total JUTC fleet, more than half are over 10 years old and due to be retired immediately. Consequently, the maintenance and operating costs are very high, supported by increasing levels of subvention from the Government which will reach a record high of over $7 billion in the 2023/2024 financial year,” he disclosed.

One hundred of the additional 200 buses will be delivered in 2024/25 and the other 100 in 2025/26, Dr Clarke revealed. These are in addition to the 70 already procured to be delivered early in this financial year.

One of those 70 new buses, an electric vehicle, was driven to the Parliament building – Gordon House – while the Finance Minister was making his presentation, as an illustration of the commitment to improve the fleet.