Public transportation in Jamaica

Hey,
We have a system made up of formal buses, formal taxi-operators and what we call robot or route taxi operators. The network is pretty well-developed especially in the cities (Kingston and Montego Bay. I would say definitely more frequent service than say Miami, Florida, but not as heavily serviced as New York or London.

The first 2 operate in much the same way as in other countries.  There is a formal schedule, but altho it's not followed perfectly buses come around at roughly the same time.  Most of our parishes have at least 1 terminus or bus park in each town centre, and you usu have to purchase your cards at the terminals.  Cards are refillable and when you swipe in the bus it tells you if you are running low and need to refill.  You can also buy 1 ticket at a time.  I don't know if the rate will mean much to you but JD80 will take you for 1 trip, but you can get a transfer for no charge once it is within certain restrictions.  You also have country buses which will take you from one parish to another.

Regular taxis (company or individual provider) are available in any shopping area or business centre, waiting around for people to jump in, or you can call a company and charter for pick-up.  It costs like JD600 for a roughly 50 km distance, unless you are going to the airport or travelling late at night then there is usually a premium.  Some people have their regular taxi-man who they just pay a weekly fee.  (Our taxi-operators usu pay a flat fee to their company, so whatever they make above that is theirs.)

A robot or route taxi drives on one street or in a particular vicinity.  They charge you JD80.00 for a trip, and will pretty much stop anywhere on that route that you need to go.  They pack people in tho, so u might find 4 or 5 people in the back seat and 2 in the front passenger seat.

Relatively safe, except for the usu pickpocket that you find in every country.  Typical rules for safety apples - make sure it is a registered taxi, especially at night.  You have your crazy driver who will decide the bus is empty and there aren't enough passengers available on the rest of the route to continue and who will just turn back or turn off on some shortcut to get to the terminus, but that would be the smaller buses.

LisaHR