Transantiago

From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"The name Transantiago was introduced with the reforms to the public transport system that serves Santiago, capital of Chile. It was considered the most ambitious transport reform undertaken by a developing country according to the World Resources Institute.

The system was introduced on February 10 2007. It standardized bus routes and eliminated redundancy of same; redundancies were commonplace in the old system, which was run by thousands of independent bus operators. The system combines local (feeder) bus lines, main bus lines and the Metro (subway) network. It includes an integrated fare system, which allows passengers to make bus-to-bus or bus-to-metro transfers for the price of one ticket, using a single contactless smartcard."

It's a national sport to complain about the Transantiago. The usual complains are that the buses are overcrowded especially at rush hour and that they are running at inconsistent frequencies, sometimes you have to wait twenty minutes and then 2 or three buses on the same line pass by. Most of these gripes stem from the time of introduction and things have gotten much better in the mean time.

However, a big difference with the system before Transantiago is that now it costs the state money. The government has used an emergency fund to keep it running and just this year an agreement has been made between all the major political parties to properly fund Transantiago the coming years.