| Page 2 of 2 < |
A Remedy for Transit Troubles Backfires in Chile, Leading Commuters to Sue
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
"People were very excited about this plan, because the government said that it was going to reduce the time of their trips to work," said Patricio Lanfranco, with the Santiago-based citizens advocacy group Ciudad Viva. "People thought they were going to have an extra hour in their lives every day. But when we saw the plans, we saw it was obvious this was going to be a catastrophe."
Lina Maria Zuluago, a native of Colombia who heads a Santiago-based organization promoting bicycle transport, contends that the heart of the problem is lack of outreach. "In Colombia, before they started TransMilenio they worked for a year with people to get them involved in the planning process, going to schools and holding public forums," she said. "Here, they didn't ask people what they wanted from the system when they were coming up with the plan."
The unfortunate result, say the program's critics, is that a lot of people have given up on public transport altogether. According to Ciudad Viva, automobile traffic has increased nearly 20 percent in Santiago this year. Hundreds of commuters have banded together to sue the operators of the system for millions of dollars in losses they claim to have suffered from disruptions in transportation.
Pollsters cite Transantiago as a principal cause of a sharp drop in the approval ratings of President Michelle Bachelet, although the project predated her arrival.
The government is pouring millions more dollars into the system to try to bail it out.
Patricio Hales, a member of congress and head of the commission investigating the project, said that if needed upgrades are made, the system perhaps could be functioning properly by the end of 2008. But he said a lack of coordination among government officials and private service providers has made that challenge a formidable one.
"They were learning as they went along," he said of those in charge of implementing Transantiago, "and it was at the cost of the inhabitants of the city."
