Jamaica Omnibus Service

The Jamaica Omnibus Service (JOS), operated a municipal bus service for the Kingston Metropolitan Area, from 1953 until it was wound up in 1983.

JOS Leyland National (N) buses in the UK awaiting shipment to Kingston.

Pre JOS

In June 1898, the existing mule car service in Kingston was phased out and a transition to electric trams, initially operated by the West India Electric Company and later by the Jamaica Public Service Company, was undertaken.[1] This transition to the electric tram was completed on March 31, 1899. This tram service continued to operate, but the inflexibility of a tram service could not keep pace with a growing city, and the tram service ceased on August 7, 1948.[2]

Kingston's first bus service operated by a company called Jamaica Utilities commenced on August 8, 1948.[3] Initially communities served included, Rockfort, Hagley Park, Mountain View and Three Miles. The service operated by Jamaica Utilities was unsatisfactory, mainly due to the poor condition in which the fleet was maintained. Efforts to get overseas professional advisers was rejected by the House of Representatives as were efforts to get financial support from government.[4]

The government eventually revoked the franchise of Jamaica Utilities,[5] paving the way for the takeover of bus service in Kingston by the Jamaica Omnibus Service (JOS) on December 15, 1953.[6]

Inception and Replacement

At its inception in 1953[7] the JOS was owned and operated by the British Electric Traction Company Limited, until it was nationalized by the government of Jamaica in 1974.[8][9] The JOS replaced the first operator of public bus transit services in Kingston, Jamaica Utilities. The JOS was replaced by a hodgepodge system of private operator owned buses, and franchisees,[10] which provided very unreliable and unstructured services[11] and was very unpopular with the public.[12] In 1998, the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) was established and continues operations to this day, (2018).

Fleet and Infrastructure
Rear view of JOS (N) buses, introduced in the 1970s.

The JOS inherited a very dilapidated depot and bus infrastructure from Jamaica Utilities, and the JOS gradually built new facilities, including a depot at Lyndhurst Road and upgraded the existing depot on Industrial Terrace. The JOS also refurbished the existing US built fleet with British built Leyland Engines. By the late 1970s the entire fleet consisted of various models of British built Leyland buses.

Route Network

At its peak, the JOS had a fleet of over 600 buses, and serviced an area ranging from Spanish Town and Portmore in St. Catherine in the western extremities of the Greater Kingston area, Border, Mt. Charles, Irish Town and Mavis Bank in north rural St. Andrew, Port Royal to the south, and Bull Bay (10 Miles) in east rural St. Andrew.[13]

A partial listing of JOS routes;

Route NumbersOrigin to Outward Destinationvia
1City Centre to Harbour View WestWindward Road, Mineral Baths
2City Centre to Harbour View EastWindward Road, Mineral Baths, Harbor View West
3City Centre to Constant SpringCross Roads, Half Way Tree
5City Centre to Cross RoadsSlipe Road
6City Centre to August TownCross Roads, Matilda's Corner, Papine
8City Centre to WaterhouseSpanish Town Road, Three Miles
11City Centre to Parks RoadRed Hills Road, Swain Spring, Cooper's Hill, Rock Hall
12Barbican Place to Jack's Hill VillageGayles House
14City Centre to BarbicanCross Roads, Lady Musgrave Road, Kings Gate
15Cross Roads to BalmagieRousseau Road, Delacree Road, Waltham Gardens
16City Centre to Jones TownSlipe Pen Road, Studley Park Road
17City Centre to Denham TownSlipe Pen Road, Arnett Gardens
18City Centre to Greenwich TownBeckford Street, Darling Street, Spanish Town Road
20Railway Station to Rollington TownRae Town, Passmore Town, Elleston Road
21City Centre to Norman GardensWindward Road, Lucas Road
22City Centre to Mona HeightsSouth Camp Road, Cross Roads, Matilda's Corner
23City Centre to Fernandez AvenueNorth Street, Franklin Town
24City Centre to Rennock LodgeWindward Road, Wareika Road
25City Centre to Rockfort Commission RoadEast Queen Street, Windward Road
26City Centre to Eden GardensNorth Street, South Camp Road, Merrion Road, Deanery Road
27City Centre to Half Way TreeWindward Road, Mountain View Avenue, Trafalgar Road
28City Centre to Vineyard Town (Lexington Avenue)North Street, South Camp Road, Merrion Road, Deanery Road
29City Centre to PapineWindward Road, Mountain View Avenue, Old Hope Road, Matilda's Corner
30City Centre to Golden SpringCross Roads, Constant Spring, Red Gal Ring, Stony Hill
31Constant Spring to BorderOld Stony Hill Road, Golden Spring, Lawrence Tavern
32Constant Spring to Parks RoadRed Gal Ring, Stony Hill, Cavaliers, Salisbury Plain
33City Centre to Rock HallCross Roads, Red Hills Road, Forrest Hills, Red Hills
34Constant Spring to Mt. PleasantDiamond Road, Golden Spring, Mt. Airy
35City Centre to HavendaleRed Hills Road, Whitehall Avenue, Mannings Hill Road
36City Centre to NorbrookCross Roads, Half Way Tree, Camperdown, Shortwood Road
37City Centre to MeadowbrookCross Roads, Half Way Tree, Dunrobin Avenue, Red Hills Road
38Cross Roads to Havendale (Michigan Close)New Kingston, Mannings Hill Road
39Cross Roads to Meadowbrook EstateDunrobin Avenue, Bakery Gates
40City Centre to Pembroke HallSpanish Town Road, Waltham Park Road, Molynes Road
43City Centre to Valentine GardensLyndhurst Road, Half Way Tree, Arlene Gardens
51City Centre to Cross RoadsSouth Camp Road, Camp Road
52City Centre to Omara RoadSpanish Town Road, Maxfield Avenue
53City Centre to Richmond ParkSpanish Town Road, Maxfield Avenue
54City Centre to BarbicanSpanish Town Road, Half Way Tree, West Kings House Road
55Cross Roads (Circular)Brentford Road, Caledonia Crescent, South Camp Road
60City Centre to Gordon TownCross Roads, Matilda's Corner, Papine
61Papine to RedlightCooperage, Irish Town
62Papine to Mt. CharlesGordon Town, Mavis Bank
65City Centre to August TownCross Roads, Matilda's Corner, Mona Road
67Cross Roads to Hope PasturesArthur Wint Drive, Rosevelt Avenue, Hopefield Avenue
70City Centre to Papine via Three MilesSpanish Town Road, Three Miles, Half Way Tree
X77East/North Parades (Circular)Windward Road, Mountain View Avenue, Mona Road, August Town, Papine, Old Hope Road, Half Way Tree, Dunrobin Avenue, Washington Boulevard, Patrick City, Marcus Garvey Drive
X80City Centre to Spanish TownBeckford Street, East Avenue, Free Zone, Edgewater, Independence City, Gregory Park,
X81City Centre to Spanish TownBeckford Street, East Avenue, Free Zone, Independence City, Naggo Head
X82City Centre to Gregory ParkBeckford Street, East Avenue, Free Zone, Fort Agusta, Independence City
X83City Centre to Bayside CentreBeckford Street, East Avenue, Free Zone, Fort Agusta, Independence City
X84City Centre to WaterfordBeckford Street, East Avenue, Free Zone, Fort Agusta, Causeway
X85City Centre to Naggo HeadBeckford Street, East Avenue, Free Zone, Independence City
X86City Centre to Spanish TownSpanish Town Road, Marcus Garvey Drive
91City Centre to Duhaney ParkThree Miles, Four Miles, Weymouth Drive
92City Centre to Patrick CitySpanish Town Road, Weymouth Drive
93City Centre to Six MilesCross Roads, Half Way Tree, Washington Boulevard
94Cross Roads to Washington GardensHalf Way Tree, Washington Boulevard
95Cross Roads to Duhaney ParkHalf Way Tree, Washington Boulevard
X97City Centre to Norman Manley AirportWindward Road, Harbour Head, Palisadoes Road
X98City Centre to Bull BayWindward Road, Harbour Head, Seven Miles
X99City Centre to Port RoyalWindward Road, Harbour Head, Palisadoes Road, Norman Manley Airport
gollark: CNAME would probably be good enough for most things. People can do HTTPS by using HTTP-based verification as normal.
gollark: Also, I checked via interweb™, and subdomains can use `document.domain` to set their "origin" to the parent domain, so you can't put anything which needs to not be accessible cross-origin-ly on the actual "madefor.cc" domain itself.
gollark: It's *technically* invalid to have a CNAME and TXT record, although some stuff won't care and some providers support a fake ALIAS thing which works like CNAME but without that constraint.
gollark: You can do that by sticking an HTML file on the server too.
gollark: Basically, Github cannot magically solve any problems with this, but there aren't horrible ones anyway so meh.

References
  1. "History of Jamaica Public Service Company Limited". Archived from the original on 2012-05-07.
  2. Last Trams, The Daily Gleaner, August 7th, 1948. Kingston, Jamaica
  3. Last Trams, The Daily Gleaner, August 7th, 1948.
  4. House Rejects Move for Transport Experts, The Daily Gleaner, December 28th, 1950. Kingston, Jamaica.
  5. Has Jamaica Utilities Failed? The Daily Gleaner, May 2nd, 1953, Kingston, Jamaica
  6. New Bus Co. takes over December 15, The Daily Gleaner, July 9th, 1953, Kingston, Jamaica.
  7. Gayle, Dennis John (2001). Privatization and Deregulation in Global Perspective, p. 236. Quorum Books, Westport, Connecticut. ISBN 0899304192.
  8. Button, Kenneth J., Hensher, David A. (2001). Handbook of Transport Systems and Traffic Control, p. 273. Emerald Group Publishers, Bingley, UK. ISBN 0080435955.
  9. (1979). Statistical Yearbook of Jamaica 1979., p. 413. Jamaica. Department of Statistics.
  10. Bouin, O., Michalet, Ch.-A., (1991). Rebalancing the Public and Private Sectors: Developing Country Experience, p. 250. OECD Publishing, Paris. ISBN 9264134409.
  11. Cervero, Robert. (2004-01). Informal Transport in the Developing World, p. 203. United Nations Publishers. ISBN 9211314534.
  12. JOS cuts Service Monday in Closing Down Plan, The Daily Gleaner, August 27th, 1983, Kingston, Jamaica.
  13. JOS Routes and Frequencies, Page 3, The Sunday Gleaner, April 13th 1980, Kingson Jamaica.


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