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

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 th
Jamaica Public Service Company
was undertaken. 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. Kingston's first bus service operated by a company called Jamaica Utilities commenced on August 8, 1948. 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 House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

as were efforts to get financial support from

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

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

Inception and Replacement

At its inception in 1953 the JOS was owned and operated by the British Electric Traction Company Limited, until it was nationalized by the government of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

in 1974. 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, which provided very unreliable and unstructured services and was very unpopular with the public. In 1998, the

Jamaica Urban Transit Company The Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) is the government owned public transport service operating within the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR), Spanish Town and Portmore. The company is headquartered in Spanish Town with its prima ...

(JUTC) was established and continues operations presently.

Fleet and Infrastructure

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 Spanish Town ( jam, label=Jamaican Creole, Panish Tong) is the capital and the largest town in the parish of St. Catherine in the historic county of Middlesex, Jamaica. It was the Spanish and British capital of Jamaica from 1534 until 1872. Th ...

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 Andrew the Apostle ( grc-koi, Ἀνδρέᾱς, Andréās ; la, Andrēās ; , syc, ܐܰܢܕ݁ܪܶܐܘܳܣ, ʾAnd’reʾwās), also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Simon Peter ...

Port Royal Port Royal is a village located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest city in the Caribbean, functioning as the centre of shipping and co ...

to the south, and

Bull Bay Bull Bay is an area located on the southeast coast of Jamaica, to the east of Kingston on the border between St Andrew and St Thomas, beside Cow Bay. According to folklore, both bays were so named because cattle once roamed the whole area and ...

(10 Miles) in east rural St. Andrew.JOS Routes and Frequencies, Page 3, The Sunday Gleaner, April 13th 1980, Kingson Jamaica. A partial listing of JOS routes;

References

{{reflist * * * * Bus operating companies Transport in Jamaica Companies of Jamaica