BUS AND taxi operators have threatened to shut down Jamaica’s transport sector next Monday if their demand for a 100 per cent fare increase is not met.

Egeton Newman, head of the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS) grouping, said at Monday’s press conference at the Half-Way Tree Primary School that the Government has been given seven days to respond.

Newman said that bus and taxi operators have gone “eight long years” without an increase.

The minister sought to use moral suasion to placate the transport operators, questioning whether Newman would “subject poor people to additional `hardships in light of the COVID pandemic”.

But private operators offering public transport have long criticised the process for rate reviews, a power that lies within the purview of the Ministry of Transport.