Black Immigrant Daily News
In reiterating the Government’s commitment to get trains rolling full-time again in Jamaica, Transport and Mining Minister, Audley Shaw, says the revival of the rail service island-wide will cost “several hundred millions of US dollars”.
Of that cost, an estimated US$8 million will be required to construct a new bridge leading from the Corporate Area to Spanish Town in St Catherine, the minister disclosed.
While speaking during a recent tour of the Jamaica Railway Corporation’s (JRC) terminus in West Kingston, Shaw noted that Jamaica was the fourth country in the world to have a railway system, and said it is “unacceptable” that the country has not had none for approximately the last 30 years.
While noting that the revival of the rail system will be costly, Shaw said it will reduce the costs now with rehabilitating damaged road infrastructure.
“Our roads can’t keep up with the damage from all the goods that we have to transport. When we have railway lines, we can carry goods as well as people,” he indicated.
“So… I am going to revive the railway service and if we have to do it in partnership with overseas people who have technology and money, then we will carry out that partnership and get it done,” Shaw stressed.
“When I listen to the history, that Jamaica was the fourth country in the world to have a railway system and now we have none, it is totally unacceptable,” he added.
There are plans to restore the Kingston rail service, starting with a Culture Yard tour by 2023, under the Jamaica Social Intervention Community Rail Project which involves collaboration between the University of Technology Jamaica (UTech) and the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom (UK).
Transport and Mining Minister, Audley Shaw (right), shares a short train ride with British High Commissioner to Jamaica, Judith Slater (left), and Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC) Board Director, Linton Johnson, during a recent tour of the JRC’s terminus in Kingston.
The plan is to transport passengers by train from Kingston to Three Miles and then to Culture Yard in Trench Town.
Other efforts have been made locally to get the train service going.
A school train service was started in January of this year, taking students from Old Harbour and Linstead to Spanish Town. From there, the students are transported to their respective schools in Spanish Town via Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) buses.
The move followed a similar effort that was launched by the Transport Ministry some years ago when the transport portfolio was held by Mike Henry.
In another attempt to reignite energy into the local rail system, head of the University of Technology’s (UTECH) School of Engineering, Oneil Josephs, who was also on the tour with Shaw, said the cooperation between the institution and the University of Birmingham will infuse significant technical knowledge and expertise into the Government’s rail restoration programme.
The universities have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the Jamaica Social Intervention Community Rail Project.
This initiative is geared at supporting community development while preserving and promoting the history of rail in Jamaica through museums and other educational outlets.
NewsAmericasNow.com
