The Metro (1)

The biggest problem of the Santiago Metro is its success. Daily the system transports over 2 million people and the density is over 5 people per square meter. It spans 84.4 km (20.1 km under construction) and has 107 (16 under construction) stations. It connects the cities center (inside the triangle created by lines 1, 2 and 5) with the municipalities and is a great way to circumvent traffic jams. Line 1 is hit hardest because it is currently the only east-west axis, but hopefully next year when the extension of line 5 is complete things might get a little easier. Station Los Heroes is the most busy, where you might see a train or two pass before you can get on.

The Chileans always complain about their metro, it's hot and it's crowded. But to be honest, in my opinion it's one of the best. It's very clean, train frequency is relatively high, layout of the station is good for the most part and security is very good. Maybe that's because the system only operates until around 23:00. Most stations have plasma television sets hanging above the platforms and a lot of stations have artwork and some even have exhibition areas. There are some aging cars in service, but for the most part they are modern, some with LCD television screens. Cars on lines 1, 2 and 5 run on rubber tires whereas the cars on lines 4 and 4A run on iron wheels.

At the end of this year, the metro should start using the the new extensions of lines 1 and 5. The most important one is that of line 5 because it will server as a parallel to the overcrowded line 1 and will unlock an region of Santiago (Maipú) that right now has a poor connection to the Metro network. Seems to me they might as well connect line 4A to that same end point, but as I understand it they want to evaluate the current system together with the Transantiago to see what problems need to be resolved more urgently. They have the money from copper sales and with the economic crisis hitting the construction sector hardest start building, I'd say! Seems a better way to stimulate the economy than buy giving away money to families based on the number of children, as they do now. Oh well, it's election year...