Dear Editor,
The Government is touting the logistics hub, but is at the same time making it less likely to succeed, are they crazy?
Based on our location in the world, I'm all for the logistics hub — properly designed — but, as I have said in the past, they should have a plan, and I mean a single, unified plan. Perhaps the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), living up to its name, with the assistance of the engineers of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers (JIE), can put such a plan together in the short time the Government is talking about.
The logistics hub should have as an integral part of it a unified railway system to move heavy freight and other goods to and from manufacturing and processing (free zone) operations across the island to the trans-shipment port, perhaps at McCarry Bay adjacent to the Vernam Field International Airport (VFIA), and the port's free zone facilities. Instead, we see the Government proposing the break-up of Jamaica's railway system.
Can you imagine having to negotiate with multiple railway companies to move a train with freight across not even 100 miles (167 Km) of rail to or from the port? Different rates charged by the various owners for the use of each part of the railway system? What about traffic control? Who would manage the trains so that two trains don't meet head-on, or schedule a faster train to prevent it from running into the tail end of another? Our railway is small enough as it is. In many countries our entire rail system would be rated as a couple spur lines. It's just crazy!
Howard Chin
Member
Jamaica Institution of Engineers
Plan rail into the hub
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The Government is touting the logistics hub, but is at the same time making it less likely to succeed, are they crazy?
Based on our location in the world, I'm all for the logistics hub — properly designed — but, as I have said in the past, they should have a plan, and I mean a single, unified plan. Perhaps the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), living up to its name, with the assistance of the engineers of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers (JIE), can put such a plan together in the short time the Government is talking about.
The logistics hub should have as an integral part of it a unified railway system to move heavy freight and other goods to and from manufacturing and processing (free zone) operations across the island to the trans-shipment port, perhaps at McCarry Bay adjacent to the Vernam Field International Airport (VFIA), and the port's free zone facilities. Instead, we see the Government proposing the break-up of Jamaica's railway system.
Can you imagine having to negotiate with multiple railway companies to move a train with freight across not even 100 miles (167 Km) of rail to or from the port? Different rates charged by the various owners for the use of each part of the railway system? What about traffic control? Who would manage the trains so that two trains don't meet head-on, or schedule a faster train to prevent it from running into the tail end of another? Our railway is small enough as it is. In many countries our entire rail system would be rated as a couple spur lines. It's just crazy!
Howard Chin
Member
Jamaica Institution of Engineers
Plan rail into the hub
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