Skip to main content

Chile's public transport service improves, study says

According to a study carried out by Santiago’s metropolitan transport department DTP Transantiago, the mass transport system operating in the Chilean capital has increased the number of buses operating and has improved frequency indicators in the last year. All seven companies operating different corridors within Santiago put more buses on the streets and exceeded the 90 per cent ratio set as the minimum to comply with regulations in the last three months of 2013 compared to the same period of 2012. Metb
February 20, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
According to a study carried out by Santiago’s metropolitan transport department DTP 5348 Transantiago, the mass transport system operating in the Chilean capital has increased the number of buses operating and has improved frequency indicators in the last year.

All seven companies operating different corridors within Santiago put more buses on the streets and exceeded the 90 per cent ratio set as the minimum to comply with regulations in the last three months of 2013 compared to the same period of 2012. Metbus was the top operator performance at 99.1 per cent, while Alsacia came last with 92.4 per cent.

All seven companies improved in frequency, with STP as the most regular bus operator, with a 90.4 per cent ratio. Alsacia was still below the 80 per cent minimum ratio required, at 77 per cent. Concessionaire Express, which a year ago was below the 88 per cent threshold, has now met the minimum target.

Transantiago was introduced in 2007 to improve public transportation by lowering the number of buses and optimising routes, but implementation was rushed, and changes in the seven years since it was introduced have been unable to solve what were initially seen as teething problems. The system has needed constant public funding, and over the past six years the government has injected over US$10bn to keep the system going.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Carrots are proving cost-effective in Netherlands
    October 3, 2018
    There are lessons to be learned from congestion avoidance schemes in the Netherlands. David Crawford welcomes some new thinking in road pricing. Highway operators worldwide are being urged to learn from Dutch experience in using financial carrots rather than sticks to encourage drivers to avoid contributing to congestion. A Netherlands/UK group makes a convincing cost/benefit case in a new global survey of road pricing technologies, economics and acceptability. Representing the Rijkswaterstaat section of
  • Hayden AI & Snapper Services keep their eyes on the road
    August 29, 2024
    Snapper Services CEO Miki Szikszai and Chris Carson, CEO of Hayden AI, tell Adam Hill about synergy and partnership – and how to make use of data once you’ve gathered it
  • Washington I-90 tolling could start in 2015
    January 2, 2013
    A planned Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) study could make tolling on interstate-90 bridges over Lake Washington and across Mercer Island all but inevitable. Tolling on the state route 520 floating bridge began about a year ago and transportation officials have been closely monitoring two factors: the routes that drivers are now using and the cost to replace the aging 520 bridge. In response, the state legislature last session asked for a new environmental study to review the affects of toll
  • Cycling is the fastest way of travelling across Buenos Aires
    May 9, 2012
    A study by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) shows cycling, rather than travelling by car or bus, as the fastest way of travelling in Buenos Aires city. By bike, it takes 26 minutes to travel between Parque Centenario and Plaza de Mayo, compared to 40 minutes that takes by bus and 41 minutes by car. The journeys were at the same time (8:50AM). The average speed for a bike is 16.2km/h, compared to 10.5km/h for a bus and 10.3km/h for a car. Because of parking, car travel is the mo