The president of the Chamber of Transportation of Uruguay (CTU) and the company Cutcsa, John Salgadojoined the controversies unleashed by the project of the national government to unite Montevideo and cannelloni with a fast train.
“We cannot conceive of any other way of operating the train initiative other than with the traditional carriers”, assured Salgado about which body should be in charge of the train-tram that will link the Old City with Pinewoodreported Telemundo.
The work of the fast train, which also confronts the government of Luis Lacalle Pou with the of Caroline Cosse in Montevideo, arose from a private initiative presented by the companies Stadler Rail Valencia (Spanish), saceem and Stiler S.A..
Salgado, who met last night with the Secretary of the Presidency, Alvaro Delgadoassured after that meeting that the project for now contemplates that the companies take charge only of the construction of the transport work, while its daily operation has not yet been defined.
The head of Cutcsa stressed that it is the current transportation companies in the metropolitan area that should be in charge of operating the Montevideo-Canelones train, when the Ministry of Transport He did not rule out that the same construction companies could operate it.
“It was raised in the meeting with crystal clarity that We do not believe that there is another way to operate this train other than with traditional transport companies of Montevideo and the metropolitan area,” said Salgado, who stated that the Secretary of the Presidency agreed with the proposal.
“There is a lot to go around. I would say slowly because of the stones, and the understanding that we are going to be supporting any type of these initiatives, ”she clarified, however.
Among the arguments that Salgado gave so that the metropolitan transport companies keep the operation of the train-tram, is the fact that they have service experience.
In any scenario, Salgado projected that “to be able to do this is going to take a few years.” “What we hope is that it takes a reasonable amount of time to come up with a definition. And that if it is not done because the investment is too much and there is no one to invest in that infrastructure, that other mechanisms be sought with other resources, which exist and can achieve the same objectives, ”he added.
Salgado considered that the construction of a train-tram is not the only possible solution to improve metropolitan mobility. “We would look for a way to operate and do it with the Metropolitan Transportation Systemto feed that train with the buses,” he said.
“Transportation is said to be slow. But what makes it so slow is not having a mobility plan that allows moving quickly within Montevideo, ”he complained.
Source: Ambito
