June 15, 2025. The Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) fleet has been boosted with the arrival of 63 new compressed natural gas (CNG) buses.
Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, Hon. Daryl Vaz, and a team consisting of JUTC Managing Director, Owen Ellington, and Managing Director of Stewart’s Automotive Group, Duncan Stewart, were on site at Kingston Wharves to witness the arrival of the Yutong buses.
The Minister noted that arrival of the buses is a fulfilment of his commitment to provide the JUTC with 100 buses per year for three years.
“We are now in year two and already the second hundred buses are due to arrive in Jamaica. Sixty-three buses arrived today and are being unloaded. Another thirty coach diesel buses for excursions/charters will arrive on July 9 and another seven CNG buses for persons with disabilities will arrive in August of 2025. So, I will deliver on the second hundred buses within the first three months of the new financial year,” Vaz outlined.
He pointed out that with the latest arrival of buses, the JUTC now has more new buses in its fleet than older ones. Vaz said the new CNG buses will operate out of the Spanish Town depot, where a new CNG fueling facility is now under construction and expected to be completed by the last week of August.
“Those buses that are now at Spanish Town will be redeployed in some instances to improve the existing service and to continue to expand the routes. So, this is a game changer for public transport in Jamaica,” the Minister explained.
Each bus has a full capacity of up to 80 passengers distributed between seated and standing. They will do an average of six trips per day each, transporting at maximum capacity a total of 480 passengers per bus per day. This means the full cohort of 70 CNG buses (the remaining seven are to arrive in August) will be able to transport 33,600 passengers per day. “That is going to improve existing routes, expand routes, and most importantly, bring the wait time for passengers down,” Vaz affirmed.
