60 JUTC buses for Scrap metal dealers - Why LPG is needed to reduce Bus Fires

I rarely say this but the JUTC (Jamaica Urban Transit Company) is starting to do a few things right.

For one, they’ve made it so that only students in uniform with their SmarterCards will benefit from concessionary fares as reported in the article “JUTC Says Only Students Using Smarter Cards Can Benefit From Concessionary Fares”, published Monday September 7, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner.

The JUTC has also increased their Fleet count up to 452 buses, extended the 2015 Summer Promotion till Saturday October 31^st 2015 and also set in motion plans to install Wi-Fi in the JUTC buses as reported in my blog article entitled “Wi-Fi on JUTC Buses in September 2015 - How extended 2015 Summer Promotion will increase revenue by JA$4 million daily”.   

These measures will hopefully boost their revenues by JA$4 million daily and also encourage more school children in the KMTR (Kingston and Metropolitan Region). Makes sense as no SmarterCard then pay the adult fare.

Adding a Food court with Wi-Fi to the White Elephant that is the HWT (Half Way Tree) Transport Center would also give the children something else to do other than fondle each other and have sex in the dark alleys as pointed out in my blog article entitled “PAMS to debut GOJ branded Food Court in Half-Way-Tree Transport Center - Making revenue from Unruly smartphone toting High School students via Cooked Food and JA$100 a week Wi-Fi Internet”

Plus with Google Transit on Google Maps, which is available on most Google Android smartphones, updated with JUTC routes and times as noted in my blog article entitled “JUTC Google Transit from UWI Computer Science Department - Why Google Maps is the next step towards an AVL”, they’ll have no reason to not be on a bus going home.

Ok, but what about the old buses that catch on fire?

Like the No. 33 that caught fire in Coorville Gardens, Duhaney Park on Wednesday June 24^th 2015 as reported in “No injuries after JUTC bus catches fire in Duhaney Park ”, published Wednesday, June 24, 2015, The Jamaica Observer or and “Another JUTC Bus Destroyed By Fire”, published Wednesday June 24, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner.

Does the JUTC have plans to tackle the problem of old buses in their fleet that are unserviceable and possibly catching on fire?

60 JUTC buses for Scrap metal dealers - Why LPG is needed to reduce Bus Fires

Turns out the JUTC plans to sell sixty (60) of their older model Buses to scrap metal dealers as reported in the article “JUTC Selling Old Buses, Invites Scrap Metal Bidders”, Published Friday September 11, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner.

Sealed bids have to be submitted by Wednesday, September 30^th 2015 and the scrap metal dealers must be registered as well as possess a tax compliance certificate and a TRN.  But rather than be a puss-in-a-bag affair, the potential bidders will have a chance to see what they're bidding for on Tuesday, September 15^th 2015 at 10:00am.

On that date they'll be given a chance to view the sixty (60) JUTC buses on the scrap heap at the Rockfort Depot as reported in the article “JUTC invites scrap metal dealers to bid for derelict buses”, published Sunday, September 13, 2015, The Jamaica Observer.

Better maintenance is key and a change of fuel to LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) as argued in my blog article entitled “JUTC faced PAAC on Wednesday September 17th 2014 – JUTC Buses can’t run on ULSD as LPG Better for the JUTC Buses Fuel Injectors” would help them reduce their maintenance costs as well as the frequent bus fires.