- IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Motorists pass through the Portmore Toll Plaza in St. Catherine during the first day of operation yesterday.
Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
MINUTES AFTER the official opening of the Portmore toll road yesterday, executive class buses and chartered taxis plying the route announced fare hikes of $10 and $150 respectively.
While the National Association of Taxi Operators (NATO) said customers should prepare to fork out the additional bucks today, the National Transport Cooporative Society (NTCS) disclosed that its buses would absorb the cost on the weekend and the new fares would come into effect tomorrow.
Yvonne McCormack, chair-person for the Portmore Citizens' Advisory Council (PCAC) told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday that the fare increases were inevitable. "It was expected. I wouldn't have expected them to absorb the cost of the toll," she said.
Come tomorrow, NTCS pas-sengers will have to pay $80 dollars per ride, up from $70, and persons chartering a taxi will have to pay a basic rate of $650, up from a minimum of $500. However, Egeton Newman, general secretary of NATO, explained that some commuters could fork out up to $850, depending on the distance of the journey.
CHARTER SERVICE
"Persons who were charged $700 because they were coming from Greater Portmore to, say, Papine (in the vicinity of University of the West Indies) will (see this fare) move to $850. But overall, it is $150 we are going to add to our charter service."
Added he: "To be honest with you, everybody wants to earn something. So we add a $30 to it and we hope that it will work. If it can't work we will review it at some time and reduce it to the $120." In defending NATO"s decision, Newman said the law could not dictate how much was to be charged for chartered taxi services.
At the same time, Ezroy, Millwood, president of the NTCS, told The Sunday Gleaner that mathematical calculations, including the number of passengers per trip and the total number of trips made in a week and other variables, indicated that a minimum of $10 more would absolve the effect of the toll. "It is the exact amount it is costing us. All we have done is transfer the cost to the public," he said.
Mr. Millwood argued that it would cost each of the 60 NTCS buses, which would have to pass through the toll gate an average of 16 times per day, some $16,000 every six days to use the highway, a feat he said is unsustainable. "It can't be done!" he emphasised.
T-TAGS SOLD
Meantime, Trevor Jackson, managing director of toll operator TransJamaican Highway, announced yesterday that approximately 2,000 electronic tags or T-Tags have already been sold. During his presentation at yesterday's disorganised opening of the toll gates and the Hunts Bay bridge, Robert Pickersgill, Minister of Housing, Transport, Water and Works, tried yet again to convince Portmore residents, who have threatened a boycott, that paying to use the toll road "is the best way to go." Mr. Pickersgill unequivocally stated that the nation's budget could not manage the strain of paying for the toll road. Additionally, he stressed that "Government has bent over backwards to facilitate the requests from the citizens of Portmore."
Portmore residents asked for a $30 toll or threatened a boycott. The request has not been met and the boycott has been initiated.
Toll rates
CLASS ONE
Nominal $60
10 passages $50
Each extra passage $40
CLASS TWO
Nominal $100
10 passages $90
Each wxtra Passage $80
CLASS THREE
Nominal $200
10 passages $180
Each extra $160
New fare increases
NTCS $80 (up from $70)
CHARTERED TAXIS
Base rate: $650 (up from $500)
Greater Portmore to Papine area: $850 (up from $700)
