QCOSTARICA – The extension of commuter service from Heredia to Alajuela is part of the Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles (INCOFER) plan to move more people daily by train.
However, for a number of residents of San Joaquin, west of Heredia Centro, the track has become a daily headache.
Since last October, when work began on the renewal of the train tracks, residents along the route have had to figure out how to access their garages, given the track runs right in front of their homes, in many cases literally at their doorstep.
The railway (INCOFER) argues that although residents are affected, the railway has the right of way and there is no turning back on the project.
While residents are quick to complain about the situation and lay the blame on the railway, the fact is that the work by the INCOFER has not been to lay new track, rather to revitalize the existing track, that has been dormant for many years.
Rather, the culprit appears to be the municipality, for allowing homes to be built along the railway line without setbacks and residents themselves.
In downtown (Centro) Heredia, not only does the track literally run in front of door steps, some parts of the public street run along the track.
In San Joaquin, residents have had to build ramps to get in and out of their garages, while others face long walks to and from the bus stops, as bus operators have changed routes and/or stops due to the train tracks.
An official at the INCOFER has more bad news for the affected residents.
“Residents must be aware that soon there will be trains constant on the tracks and we don’t want any accidents with vehicles that are within the right of way,” said María Fernanda Arias, spokesperson for the INCOFER and that “the complaints have been referred to the legal department.”
The railway is planning to start the Heredia Centro to San Joaquin service in May, and to Alajuela by the end of the year.
Source: Crhoy.com, nacion.com
In the photo above, the track runs down the middle of the street. I suspect that it was once as it is in San Joaquin, where traffic moving in one direction used one side of the track, and traffic moving in the opposite direction used the other. When the track went into disuse, the municipalities and property owners eventually paved the entire areas. I understand that property owners must bear the cost of restoring the entrances into their own properties on the tracks, although, considering the fact that the tracks were assumed by everyone to have been abandoned, it would have been a good idea for someone to have arranged for them to be restored.
The biggest problem caused by the track restoration is that nobody has done anything to smooth over the places where auto traffic must cross the tracks. The result is that drivers (who stop for speed bumps and drive on the wrong side of the road to avoid potholes) cross very slowly, and traffic becomes backed up. This has come shortly after San Joaquin reversed the direction of the rights of way so that cars crossing the tracks now have the right of way even though almost all of them come to full stops to cross the road. The same thing occurs in Heredia Centro in a route used by ambulances to get to the hospital.
I frankly don’t know if the responsibility for repaving these intersections belongs to INCOFERm the municipalities, or some other agency of the government, but someone should have taken care of this months ago.
Sorry for the confusion, the last photo is of downtown Heredia, where the tracks still run in the street.
What came first seems to answer in common sense terms as to who really has the problem to solve.