Ecobreves – CHILE: Advances in Cleaning Up Santiago

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SANTIAGO, Mar 20 2004 (IPS) - The Chilean government is creating a Transantiago Financial Administration System to reorganize public transportation and to build bikeways, among other measures intended to reduce pollution in the capital, home to five million people. The system will collect, administer and distribute the 700 million dollars generated each year by public transportation, reported the Ministry of Public Works on Mar. 15.

Fares are to be regulated, “smart cards” for paying the fares will be used more extensively, and revenues will be redistributed to reward the public transportation companies with best records for ridership and environmental protection.

Operators of microbuses and collective taxis, the main means of surface transport in the city, announced that they will take the issue to court because they see the new system as expropriating their business, and therefore unconstitutional.