Need for return of rail service

THE country’s rail service, which often transported on a single route as many passengers as 150 route taxis or 15 to 18 buses, should never have been abandoned by Government. In turn, had it been operating today, on say between Port-of-Spain and Arima, and Port-of-Spain and San Fernando, the service would have reduced the need for so many heavy-duty transport vehicles on main roads between Port-of-Spain and some of the nation’s principal industrial estates.

Indeed, a great deal of today’s traffic jams, in which trucks, buses, maxi taxis, private cars and route taxis jostle each other for the rapidly dwindling space on the nation’s main arteries can be placed at the injudicious decision to do away with the trains. The introduction of free secondary school education in 1961, based on the results of the then Common Entrance Examination, meant that thousands of primary schoolchildren, from lower income families living along the East West Corridor, Central and South Trinidad, saw a widened opportunity to attend so-called prestige schools in Port-of- Spain. And instead of the relative handful of Government Exhibitions, which had allowed brighter children access to these schools, the door to a chance at upward mobility had opened to thousands more. In addition, scores of elementary pupils living in Central Trinidad and even in North Trinidad would name as their choices “prestige” secondary schools in San Fernando.  This resulted in a sharp increase in demand for transportation to Port-of-Spain and San Fernando, which would be compounded by criss crossing. The introduction of the School Bus Service by the Public Transport Service Corporation in 1966 on direction from Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams meant the shifting of units from regular routes, even as the School Bus Service failed to meet the new demand.

 The massive secondary school building programme, which began in the early 1970s, saw the demand for transportation spiralling. A new problem arose in 1974, which would confuse the issue. The PTSC, humbugged by a multitude of negatives, would be plagued by a drop in the run out position, which affected both the Open and School Bus Services. Of the 368 buses allocated by the Corporation to its stations in Port-of-Spain, San Fernando, Sangre Grande and Point Fortin, there was a monthly average run out position in 1974 of 154, or 41.8 percent! The abandoning of the rail service was felt keenly, not simply by the Corporation, but by the tens of thousands of working adults and even schoolchildren who sought its services. The point has to be made that even the schoolchildren suffered, as the school bus allocation proved insufficient in light of sharply increased demand created by free secondary education and the school building programme it had triggered. Millions of man hours were lost annually, and millions of dollars were lost either as a result of adversely affected productivity or in docked wages. School classes were also hit, what with scores of pupils turning up late for classes. Teachers were faced with the problem of either going over already handled classwork, in which case those who turned up early suffered, or going ahead, regardless, in which case the latecomers lost out.

Here was a case made out by events for a return of the rail service, as gradually the roads became clogged with maxi taxis (mini buses), which would be introduced, and four and five-passenger conventional taxis. Each day saw scores of persons, adults and schoolchildren standing along various routes waiting, all too many in vain, for transport. The lack of transport, particularly with the School Bus Service, which is generally accepted as an integral part of the education process, contributed to the demotivating of many of the nation’s schoolchildren. The rail service in its heyday operated not merely a commuter service for adult and school- bound passengers, but a freight service as well, lifting tonnes of equipment and construction material for the oil industry, manufacturers and developers. The real problem with the railways that led to its induced poor performance in the 1960s lay in a hardly concealed policy by Government of allowing it to run down. There was little or no marketing in the first two years of the Corporation. And even after the Public Transport Service Corporation, which had been given the responsibility of operating the old Trinidad Government Railways as a mere department, established a Public Relations Department, the Head of Public Relations would be dissuaded from marketing the rail schedules and services, and persuaded to market only the bus service.

A properly equipped rail service and bus service could have existed, and could co-exist today, with each contributing to the economic and social development of the country. A commuter train, depending on the number of carriages used, was, at the high point of rail, capable of transporting several hundred passengers at a time, and the average large bus would tend to have a maximum adult seating capacity of less than 50. So that a train, with a 600-passenger capacity, for the sake of argument, depending of course on the number of carriages used, if full could in essence absorb all of the passengers carried by the equivalent of 120 five-seater or 150 four-passenger route taxis.  In turn, a 46-seater bus could absorb all of the passengers that nine five-seater taxis could handle. Admittedly, the railway would have had to be subsidised by Government, although such subsidy could have been substantially reduced through the acquiring of new rolling stock and an adequate supply of replacement parts.  But the enhanced productivity in the workplace and the classroom would have more than made up for any subsidy. Today, in the absence of the rail service, the country loses untold tens of millions of dollars annually in lost time caused by interminable traffic jams. Recently there has been increasing talk of operating an electric rail service, along the Priority Bus Route, laid down on the old railway bed,  the first phase of which was in 1976.  If implemented, it will complement the Priority Bus Service and provide transport positives, ending or substantially easing the negatives of the past several decades.