(Jamaica Observer) Wide-eyed, jubilant spectators flocked streets and sidewalks along the route from May Pen in Clarendon to Linstead, St Catherine on Saturday, waving and shouting as the bright yellow, green and black coaches swept past them for the official test run of the Jamaica Railway Corporation’s (JRC’s) new train service.
The excitement on the faces of several of the two hundred passengers aboard the train was echoed in the expressions on the faces of members of the thick crowd that converged at the point of departure at the May Pen Railway Bridge in Clarendon.
Cellphones, still and video cameras flashed, clicked and rolled as average citizens jostled each other for the best vantage point to record the moment for posterity. Others, whom the Sunday Observer could not ascertain were invited guests or not, seemed overcome with exuberance and flung themselves aboard the six coaches creating mass confusion. “You cyaan have a country and don’t have rail service, a madness that,” an elderly gentleman who gave his name as Peter said.
“Mi haffi start tek it cause mi love train bad. It was a major disappointment when the train stop run.”
He made his way into the train then admitted his original destination was actually May Pen but he couldn’t resist the ‘free’ train ride.
“Train service must be in every major town,” Peter continued. “Is better business that for people travelling. When they going ‘bout their business instead of taking this whole heap of different vehicle they can just take one. It too hackling, especially if people travelling with load. Now it will be much easier,” he declared.
As he said this, the train slowly pulled away from its ‘launch-pad’. First stop — Bog Walk, then Linstead for a Commemoration ceremony at the Bread of Life Ministry’s church hall. But, along the journey aboard this ‘party train’, passengers sipped wine and other beverages, stared out the windows at the scenery flashing by and reminisced about times past when the train service was in its heyday.
Entertainer, Jimy Graham, consumed by nostalgia, pulled out his guitar and began entertaining passengers in one of the crowded coaches. “This is very nostalgic for me, Graham said. “I have been living in China for 40 years and being back and riding the train, I am just remembering all the sounds and sceneries like when I was a child. I am really excited about it!” he said.
This excitement was seemingly shared by the young and the old alike. Sixteen-year-old Akeina Edwards and four of her friends said they had dashed from their classroom at the Bog Walk High School in St Catherine, upon hearing the tooting of the train horn.
“I am very excited to see it, and the colour is very nice.” Edwards said with a wide smile. “I have never ridden a train and even though I go school in Bog Walk, if anything happening in Spanish Town that I have to go, I will take it.”
Two of her friends, however, said they were too afraid to try this ‘new’ means of transportation. Education Minister Andrew Holness and Youth, Sports and Culture Minister Olivia Grange joined Transport Minister Mike Henry for the inaugural journey. Henry, whose persistence may have been largely responsible for the resurgence of the Jamaican train service, was obviously in a great mood — smiling, laughing and even throwing in a dance move here and there. He reiterated that the Government wanted to give commuters options for travel and contribute to the financial well-being of the country.