CHILE’S TRANSANTIAGO: OPERATORS WON’T SIGN NEW CONTRACTS

(April 13, 2007) Throughout the Transantiago public transport fiasco that has plagued Santiago for the greater part of this year, Chile’s government has maintained that the system’s private operators are to blame for its flaws. This week, Transport Minister René Cortázar began a review of the operators’ contracts to try and improve the situation. However, in an interview with local television station Chilevisión, one of the Transantiago’s main operators said on Thursday that the new contracts proposed by Cortázar were not financially viable.

Jorge Beya, general manager of bus companies Buses Metropolitana and Buses Gran Santiago, said on Wednesday that the new contracts outlined by Cortázar would almost definitely mean a loss for Transantiago operators.

“We have a contract that should be changed – but not so that we make a loss,” said Beya. “There’s no way we’ll sign a contract knowing that we’re going to lose, and I won’t do it. I don’t think that the other nine operators will sign either.”

The contracts require bus operators to keep 90 percent of their bus fleet in circulation, compared to the 80 percent that was required before the Transantiago. Beya said that this could mean over-used buses and higher maintenance costs.

According to Beya, various other problems with the Transantiago, including the lack of a GPS system and an almost 30 percent rate of fare avoidance, could mean operators losing 40 pesos per passenger.

The loss will have to be covered by the system’s reserve funds, which Beya said he will refuse to pay.

Some 200 new buses from Beya’s companies will be operating in Santiago within the next 45 days, which will fulfill his companies’ existing requirement of providing 800 buses. However, this may not be enough to solve the transport crisis.

The system was supposedly implemented with a total of 4,900 buses, but transport officials say the number must now increase to about 6,500. Before the Transantiago, around 8,000 buses were circulating in Santiago’s streets.

The government appears reluctant to make further changes to the contracts. One newspaper reported a Public Works Ministry official as saying that bus operators were spreading lies to try and convince the public that the government, rather than the operators, is to blame for the Transantiago fiasco. (Ed. Note: See feature story below – an interview with Transport Minister Cortazar.)

SOURCES: EL MERCURIO, LA NACIÓN
By Cate Setterfield (editor@santiagotimes.cl)