One of the few achievements of the Chinchilla administration is the “intersectoriales”, the intersectoral (Interlinea) buses that was put into service last October, in response to the collapse of the Circunvalación.
Although the idea of a bus connecting adjoining communities, without requiring travel to and from downtown San José, was not the idea of the current administration, but it was able to put into place in weeks what it couldn’t do in the first three years.
The intersectoral bus service was initiative of the Arias administration(2006-2010), which could not get the buses running.
Today, passenger demand for the intersectoral bus service has forced the MOPT to accelerate the process in adding to new routes.
Currently some 12.000 passengers daily move between Escazú and La Uruca and Guadalupe – La Uruca and Moravia – Desemaparados. The passengers no longer have to take a bus from Escazú to downtown San José to take another to La Uruca, for example, in less than one hour. The same for the other two existing routes and will be for the two new.
When the intersectoral buses started operating in October, the 36 buses on the three routes moved about 800 people a day. That number more than tripled within a few days of operation, leading the government to extend the service that initially was to be a temporary measure to alleviate the traffic congestion caused by the problem on the Circunvalación.
Everyone at the MOPT and the Consejo de Transporte Público (CTP) – Public Transport Council, is in agreement that the service is a success with passengers, a service that almost equals the 16.00 daily passengers moved by urban train service in San José, Heredia and Cartago.
Juan Manuel Delgado, head of the CTP told La Nacion, that within 15 days they will give a report to inform the commissioning of the two new routes.
There is no firm date for the start of the two new routes, but transport officials say it will be before May 8, the last day of the current administration.
