Belgian gift to Jamaican bus drivers in ruins

A multimillion-dollar bus-driving simulator donated by Belgium to the Jamaican government nearly four years ago lies in ruins and will not be repaired, reports the Jamaica Gleaner’s Tyrone Reid. When the simulator arrived in 2009, it was heralded as a watershed moment in the public transport sector that would improve the quality of local bus driving. But few Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) drivers had a chance to sit behind the wheel of the simulator before it gave up the ghost. Only two batches of 25 JUTC drivers benefited from the Belgian donation. Another 25 drivers from the private sector were also able to try the machine. A recent visit to the Caribbean Maritime Institute, where the simulator is housed, revealed that the equipment is non-functional. Sections of the virtual-reality machine were pulled down and the housing is being used to store mattresses, an old suitcase and other debris. The room that once housed the equipment is now being retrofitted as office space. Fritz Pinnock, executive director of the Caribbean Maritime Institute, told The Sunday Gleaner that the equipment caused trouble from the get-go. "It worked for a while and then it stopped. It had bugs. It was uneconomical to operate and when we looked at the cost of repairing the simulator, we found it would be cheaper to replace it," he said. Pinnock added that the Institute is now looking to purchase more flexible simulators that can be used for multiple purposes. Osric Forrest (pictured), director of the School of Advanced Skills, told the Jamaica Gleaner that the simulator stopped working completely in the summer of 2010. "We had limited use of it from day one," said Forrest. "We really didn't get any benefit out of it," added Pinnock. So what will happen to the gift from the Belgians? "Well, we are looking for a museum ...," said Forrest while Pinnock added that the plan is to "set it up in an environment where people can go and look at it".