Transportation woes hit 11 Miles residents

Residents of 11 Miles, St Thomas, believe they have been neglected the most by the undertaking of the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project, claiming that the cost of transportation has doubled since the infrastructural development began.

"Nuh bus nah drive the old road again, everybody take the highway. It hard on us because when we take bus, we either affi come off down by 10 Mile, where the highway start, or by Grants Pen and walk come home. And trust me, it rough sometime," one resident shared. The middle-aged woman lamented the struggle of walking almost three miles to get home on some days.

"Sometime we walk wid load, especially if yuh go shopping in the town or something and it really rough. Some bus driver and taxi man nuh want drive round here any more and dem a tell yuh straight say it ago cost yuh more," another resident chimed.

They argued that transportation gets even more difficult after peak hours when schoolchildren have already left the community.

"God bless if you get something fi go do yuh business, 'cause when the pickney dem gone from inna the morning, a it that," they told THE STAR.

"We want the authorities to remember us around here because we a suffer. It's like because the new road a make, we forgotten round here. Some parts of the road in 11 Miles get worse and nobody nah try fix it up. People still deh round here," the woman said.

- T.T.