RETURN OF THE TRAINS?

Should Government introduce a light rail system on the Priority Bus Route it will see a shift of tens of thousands of East-West Corridor commuters to the rail service who today use conventional taxis, maxi taxis and private cars on the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway and Eastern Main Road to get to work and to school. Use of the light rail service will enable these persons to reach to work and school early resulting in less stress on the road and consequent greater productivity in the workplace and classroom. In addition, it will increase the amount of leisure time for workers who will be able to reach home early at the end of the work day, as well as additional leisure and study time at home for schoolchildren. Minister of Works and Transport, Franklyn Khan, announced on Thursday that Government would decide in June of next year whether it would establish a light monorail system along the East-West and North-South Corridors in Trinidad.

Meanwhile, the only immediately available transport channels along which to establish such a service are the Priority Bus Route between Port-of-Spain and Arima, along the old railway bed and the former railway bed between Curepe and San Fernando. The Trinidad Government Railway operated train services along these beds until the trains were phased out in the 1960s. As a consequence of this and specifically the sharply reduced bus run out position of the Public Transport Service Corporation, which today operates fewer than one-third of the units it did in 1968, most commuters have had to make the shift to taxis (convential and maxi) and private cars. And when it is understood that in 1968, buses operated by the PTSC lifted a total of 29,781,868 passengers, this means that a substantial portion of that traffic, which in the intervening years has swollen considerably, is now accommodated on the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway, the Eastern Main Road and the Uriah Butler and Solomon Hochoy Highways.

The fumes from the scores of vehicles and the stress caused by having to wait for two hours and more to reach destinations have created health problems, in addition to the daily loss of productivity referred to earlier. Clearly, what is needed is not a seeming off the cuff comment that leaves it open as to whether or not Government will establish a light monorail service, but a definitive statement. The answer to the obscenely long lines of vehicles snaking their way into Port-of-Spain and points along the route lies in a properly structured and operated multi-passenger mass transit service that has one unit capable of lifting hundreds of persons at the same time. Neither the bus service, the conventional taxi or maxi taxi is the answer. In turn, an on time light rail service along the old East-West and North-South railway beds will see from its inception a shift of commuters from many of the vehicles which today clog the country’s highways.

Additionally, it may even encourage a substantial number of private car owners to leave their cars at home and travel by train, where this is feasible. Meanwhile, the total package of commuters in any single year is way in excess of the 29 million plus PTSC bus passengers of 1968, which in itself represented a jump of 31 percent over that of the previous year’s 25,477,614 passengers. This jump in one year, and the number of housing settlements, companies, industrial estates and primary, secondary and tertiary institutions established since then and which has seen the annual overall number of commuters skyrocketing, are the most powerful argument for a return of the trains.