It’s been a year and a half since its introduction and the
Tren Urbano is working but it’s not going anywhere, here’s why:
The entire mass transportation system dubbed the Alternativa de Transpor-tación Integrada, “ATI” [Integrated Transportation Alternative] doesn’t work!
The public bus system doesn’t work!
The water ferries and shuttles from Hato Rey Station [Golden Mile District] to Old San Juan have had two false starts and are nonexistent!
Tren Urbano Home Page [official site], hasn’t been working for over year! and the Tren Urbano Puerto Rico Public Art Project Home Page has been suspended!
Sidewalks are nonexistent since they are taken-over by cars!
And finally, the Tren Urbano “está cojo”, it doesn’t go anywhere, just ask anyone in San Juan, its been built from the outskirts-inwards, all systems in the world start from the city centre towards the outskirts, it doesn’t reach “la espina dorsal”, the main troughfare of the city, densely populated areas such as Santurce, Miramar and Old San Juan, building extensions to Caguas as planned will also not solve anything, it will just promote further urban sprawl, exactly what developers want because roadways are clogged, Caguas could easily be served by a Rapid Transit Bus system with its own right-of-way and higher quality inter-city buses, a much less costly alternative!
Do we really want to be enslaved by the car in suburbia, do we really need 1+ ton of metal and 100+ horses to transport us to the corner store in this day and age!, are we being shortchanged!
This letter is in reference to comments posted on July 9th, 2003:
El Tren Urbano: Will it solve San Juan’s traffic congestion or create a new problem?
Photo: Felix Lopes © All Rights Reserved