The Transport Authority, the agency responsible for monitoring and regulating the public transportation sector, renewed its mandate of “Regulating with Vision” on Sunday, July 6 with a thanksgiving service to mark its 27th anniversary at Saxthorpe Methodist Church.

Held under the theme, ‘Leading the Transportation Revolution…Still regulating with Vision’, the sermon brought together policymakers, regulators, users of the service, and well-wishers.

Noting the important role of the Agency in governance, Rev’d Claudette Campbell espoused that “…the Transport Authority’s vision has to do with a sense of order”.

Referencing an earlier reading by Minister without portfolio (Housing) Dr. Morais Guy, Rev’d Campbell said “it took the effort of men and women of vision” to establish the entity and, “like Abraham, they became trailblazers”.

To this end, she called for support for the work of the Authority, noting that it took “guts and grit to see it through”.

An agency of the Ministry of Transport, Works & Housing, The Transport Authority currently issues more than 54,000 road licences annually in five categories; stage carriage, express carriage, contract carriage, route taxi and hackney carriage.

Established in 1987 in response to the growing need for regulation and monitoring of the public transportation system following major changes including the granting of route sub-franchises to minibus operators in 1984, the sector has undergone several changes. Today, one of its most noticeable changes is the streamlined bus service in the Kingston Metropolitan Region.

Former head of the Transport Authority, Lt. Commander John McFarlane sought to put the ‘Regulating with Vision’ slogan he coined several years ago, in perspective. [The primary focus was] “the development of a transportation sector comprised of public buses, taxis, contract carriage operators that people would feel confident in at any time,” an achievement, he said, is now well underway.