Prime Minister Bruce Golding spearheaded a large group of transport officials in opening the Downtown Transportation Centre on Saturday, January 15, 2011

The new Centre located at Water Lane, Kingston was completed in June, 2010 and is comprised of a main terminal 1A and smaller terminals 1B and 1C to the north across Water Lane. The Complex is managed by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) and will facilitate rural buses, non-JUTC operators, hackney carriages and taxis. The Transport Authority (TA) and the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) will also operate from the Centre. The JUTC will continue to use the Parade area. In addition, the Pechon Street Station is to be refurbished and will accommodate JUTC Sub-Franchise operators.

The opening of the new facilities will directly affect terminal points for just over 800 independent public passenger vehicle operators which currently utilise the downtown Kingston area. Based on the new arrangements, the designated terminal points for public passenger vehicles operating in the downtown area effective January 15, 2011 are as follows:

Certain changes to occur downtown include:

PARADE

• 194 buses are to use Parade exclusively, operating from North, South and West Parade
• All JUTC routes that use the Parade area will terminate there
• JUTC Portmore routes that now use Pechon Street now terminate at Parade

PECHON STREET

• The 250 JUTC sub-franchise bus operators now terminate at Pechon Street
• Pechon Street has the capacity to hold 50 operators simultaneously
• Signage for the area has been provided by the UDC, based on guidelines/submission from the operating agencies

WATER LANE

• Sub-franchise taxi operators now terminate at the Water Lane Terminal
• Rural Bus operators (to the east and nth east) terminate at Water Lane Terminal 1
• All route taxis will now terminate at Water Lane Terminals 1B and 1C  

SHUTTLE SERVICE

• The JUTC will provide a shuttle service (route # 200) to connect all three terminal points
• Some 6-8 buses will be used with a headway of four minutes in the peak hours
• The shuttle service with drop-off points only at the terminal points, will be free to commuters, and will be operated between the hours of 5:00am and 11:00pm
• The cost to operate the shuttle is estimated at a minimum of $7.15M per month

The establishment of the new Transportation Centre is meant to rationalize and bring greater order to the transportation arrangements for Downtown Kingston and improve service to the public.