Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
THE NATIONAL Trans-port Cooperative Society (NTCS) is contemplating a fare increase to counter the effects of the introduction of a $200 toll on the Portmore leg of Highway 2000, according to the bus company's president Ezroy Millwood.
However, Mr. Millwood stressed last night that he would make every attempt to avert a fare hike.
The NTCS president told The Gleaner last night that a committee was to meet last night and report the conclusion to him.
"I am asking them to avoid that (increase) but they are saying that it looks tight," he said late yesterday.
Mr. Millwood claimed he has been trying without success to contact the officials responsible for the Portmore leg of Highway 2000 to discuss special arrangements for his 60 buses which would have passed through the toll plaza an average of 16 times per day.
"We are looking to pay up front for a thousand rides (passages) and keep that going consistently, if we are allowed to pay at a rate of $160," he revealed.
Trevor Jackson, managing director of TransJamaican Highway, the developers of Highway 2000, said they were not prepared to make any more special arrangements.
When the toll road opens on July 13, the NTCS buses would pay a nominal fee of $200, $180 for 10 passages and $160 for each extra passage.
Meanwhile, Yvonne McCor-mack, chairperson of the PCAC, clarified that the boycott maybe longer than two months.
"We will revisit at the end of two months to the impact it has had but the boycott continues," she said.
