Athaliah Reynolds, Staff Reporter

A security guard at the Half-Way Tree Transport Centre (sunglasses) about to escort this student (foreground) to the ticketing line on Monday afternoon. Authorities at the centre say they have been working to curtail the problem of students loitering at the facility after school hours. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

To alleviate the problem of loitering at the Half-Way Tree Transport Centre, managers at the facility are enforcing a one-hour ticketing policy.

Lenworth Simms, marketing and sales manager at the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), said this was being done in a bid to ensure that students move in and out of the centre as quickly as possible.

Simms said that for most routes, except for the 53 and 54 buses, there was generally a one-hour cycle. Tickets for those routes, he said, will now only be valid for one hour after purchase.

Since the opening of the centre, it has been reported that students have been using the facility as a hang-out spot, often causing mayhem.

An employee at the centre who spoke to The Gleaner on condition of anonymity said that in the first few weeks of the opening students had vandalised the bathrooms, leaving several markings of expletives on the newly painted walls.

"They going on bad, man, even gone as far as having sex in the bathrooms," he said.

Victor Green, general manager at the centre, however said he has had no reports of students having sexual intercourse in the bathrooms, but admitted that staff members have had to erase graffiti from the walls. "That's been dealt with. We went in and wiped those out. It was nothing serious," he said.

Security tight

Green further said that with the level of security at the centre, there was no way the students would have the opportunity to have sex in the bathrooms.

When The Gleaner visited the centre on Monday afternoon, it was noted that there were at least two individuals from the maintenance department patrolling the bathrooms. A security guard was also stationed outside the doorway.

Green further said he has recently met with student body representatives from several high schools in the Corporate Area in a bid to curtail the problems of loitering and indiscipline.

"The thing is that what happens with the students when they gather at the centre is just a reflection of what is taking place in the schools and in society," he said.