Talk:Red Metropolitana de Movilidad

Needs Update
This article discusses "2010" in future tense. Substantial parts of the article do not seem to have been updated to reflect Transantiago's progress (or potential lack thereof) since around 2008. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chiefmanyrabbitguteat (talk • contribs) 19:02, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

Disadvantages
"Competition between companies and drivers, which had been shown to reduce wait time and transit time, will be diminished. According to the abstract of the economics paper "The War for the Fare", "We find that a typical bus passenger in Santiago waits roughly 10% longer for a bus on a fixed-wage route relative to an incentive-contract route" (Johnson, Reiley, Munoz 2005)."

The complete system, which should be fully implemented by the end of 2006, include centralized control of the frequencies (through a GPS or similar system). This implies that headways will be controlled in order to avoid the "natural" vehicle bunching that occurs in the absence of a central headway control. If you read the complete paper cited, you will realise that the fixed-wage routes that the authors consider for their comparison are routes that operated without any headway control. Actually, headways are expected to be much more regular with the new system that they were before, when drivers competed trying to overpass other buses from the same line. It was very common to see two (or sometimes even three) buses from the same line running toghether competing for being the first reaching the next stop. --Agschwen 10:29, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. I had only read the abstract. Yes, I know from experience that it is not odd to see 2 buses from the same line running practically one behind the other :). Sean 19:05, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Transantiago is the worst transport plan ever made in the history. Peopple is taking at least one more hour every day. Several persons have died in the subway by sofocation.

- - Stephen Blake says:

The anecdotal reports of suffocation in the Metro stations are completely unsubstantiated. It is true that there were insufficient numbers of "micros" (buses) available after the implementation of the system, and there is still a HUGE number of bugs to be worked out - - however, the routes are based on a grid system, and easy to negotiate.

The major problem with the bip! Smartcard, is that many of the machines on the buses are out of commission at any particular period in time. I have made several trips where it was impossible to pay the fare - there's no backup system for collecting cash, and the electronic gizmo that deducts and registers your passage is out of service. For this reason, many bus drivers take no notice when people wave their cards at the machine and get a "this didn't take" signal. They just wave them on through.

Frequent User
I have lived in Santiago de Chile since July 2005, and I have been a frequent user of the Transantiago, both the Metro and the buses.

The Metro's Red Line, which runs east-west from San Pablo to Escuela Militar has collapsed four times, between May 10 and May 17, 2007. On all these occasions, authorities in the Transantiago have been unable to cope with the problems. The main issues with the Metro, since January 2007 are:

1. Not Enough Trains on the Red Line. This is the main line which feeds most of the business and working districts in Santiago Centro, Providencia and Las Condes. During the rush hour periods, both daytime and evening, trains arrive at the stations approximately every 120s. This is simply not enough to move the volume of people present. Trains must arrive every 30s to accomodate the volume.

2. Individual trains DO NOT extend the full length of the platform. In order to move the maximum number of people, per stop, trains must be maximized (ie: if the platform is 200m long, each train should be as close to 200m long as possible).

3. The Metro needs to be Operational 24 hour a day. In a city approaching 6 million people, there is absolutely no excuse for the Metro to be operational anything less than 20 hours a day. Currently, the Metro opens at 6am (Monday-Saturday), 8am on Sundays; and closes at 23:00 (11pm). This is just plain stupid. In order to keep the flow of people moving, the Metro should open at 4am and close at 2am. Ideally, it should be open 24/7.

4. Passengers have to move to the interior of the cars. There seems to be an imphatuation in this city with standing right next to the doors of the Metro. MOVE PEOPLE! Let more people on.

The Buses are another problem altogether. Their main problems are:

1. The buses are only half organized. It has been great that buses now only stop at busstops, and not where the driver damn well pleases. The new buses have also been a plus, as has the BIP card. The buses continue to follow a specific route, but they are not coordinated to any kind of a time schedule. They simply drive around their route as quickly as possible. You can no longer have this type of system, because often you end up with buses following the same route, bunching up. So, at any given time you'll find for example; 5-8 #406 buses within a 5 minute span of time, and then you can wait anything from 5-30 minutes until the next one shows up. The buses need to be spread out evenly over their routes all day, to prevent buzy busstops from becoming overcrowded. Buses must travel at a constant speed (maximum 60km/hr) and they must stop at all assigned busstops, regardless of passenger request.

2. Buses must be restricted to the inside 2 lanes only. Since the bus does not have to stop or even slow down at every assigned bus stop, often one finds buses travelling in the the far outside lane, going 80km/hr. It is impossible for the driver to see a passenger at a stop, let alone providing enough time to stop safely.

3. Once again, a simple rule for the passengers: Once all the seats have been filled, new passengers should be forced to move to the back of the bus. This solves three problems: 1. Maximizes the use of the space inside the bus. 2. Prevents people from boarding the bus at the rear, and not paying. 3. Allows the drivers to better judge whether or not their bus is completely full, and therefore whether or not they can or cannot pick up any more passengers. Why everyone wants to stand near the front door is beyond me.

The overall problem has been the new system was only half organized. Before January 2007, the system was disorganized, which meant there were many overlaps and redundancies which, oddly enough, kept the system in some kind of working balance. Now the system is collapsing because it was only half planned. The overlaps and redundancies have been removed, but their has been an extreme underestimation of the potential ridership. The Transantiago sold more tickets in February 2007 (a month typically when the population of Santiago leaves for summer vacation), then they did in all of 2006. Ridership has gone rocketing up exponentially since March 2007. This simple fact coupled with the huge increase in the population here over the past two years, should have sent warning lights flashing and bells ringing. There should have been 40 new Metro trains ordered, not the 4 which have been made operational. New buses..yes, but more buses than you had before. Nicholas GunnThewayofthegunn 20:44, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Tradegy on the Transantiago
There have been many reports, some substantiated, some not, about people dying on the Metro from either suffocation, heart attacks or heat frustration. The Metro is certainly a disorganized mess right now, and many people are worried that Santiago's Metro will soon look like Tokyo's Metro, in terms of volume and congestion.

Unlike Japanese culture, Chileans loose their tempers at situations like this one, occasionally with tragic consequences. One may blame "hot-blooded latin culture" for these outbursts of violence, but one should also consider that many of the people in this country work very long hours (50-60 hours/week is common) for mediocre salaries. Add to this mixture a public trasportation system which is failing, and adding 2-3 hours of travel each day, and you have a lit fuse ready for the dynamite.

This week, irrate passengers on a bus approaching Baquedano (a large plaza in the centre of Santiago), who were supporting a large protest taking place there, began to attack the bus driver. It was reported that one of the passengers had a gun, but the end result was that the driver lost control of the bus and struck a mother and child on the sidewalk, then the bus crashed head on into a tree in the park adjacent to the plaza.

The mother was returning from her child's school, where she was helping with extra-curricular activities. The child only received minor injuries; his mother was killed instantly. After being treated for his injuries by EMS, the child wandered around the plaza asking for his mother.

Who takes the responsibility for this tradegy? The frustrated and angry passengers? The bus driver? The government who can't seem to respond adequately to a serious transit problem?

Who is going to explain this, to a motherless child? Who is going to say I'm sorry? When is someone going to "take the bull by the horns" and fix this problem, before someone else gets killed? -Nicholas GunnThewayofthegunn 17:18, 18 May 2007 (UTC)


 * This is not the appropriate venue to vent your frustration with the system. Pristino (talk) 04:34, 29 March 2010 (UTC)