The announcements in transports
During the Public Account in the National Congress, the President of the Republic Sebastián Piñera, detailed several infrastructure projects. One of the emblematics, the idea of "declaring of public interest" the proposal to create a high-speed train service from Santiago to Valparaíso and San Antonio.
"Announce today that the Ministry of Public Works has declared of public interest the projects to build the much desired passenger and freight trains, which will connect the city of Santiago with the ports of Valparaíso and San Antonio and preparing us to call an international tender", said the President.
The construction would be the first high-speed train in South America, which would be available to around 7 million people.
Although today there is a layout for railways in the Central Zone, one option is the construction of a new one, which would cross the Valley of Maria Pinto and Casablanca through three tunnels, linking Santiago with Valparaiso in a trip that is estimated to last 45 minutes approximately. At least that is the project of Tren Valparaíso Santiago (TVS), a company that has proposed to carry out the work. In this idea, the tour includes four stations: one in Valparaíso (Baron sector), another in Viña del Mar (downtown), Casablanca and finally in Maipú (Vespucio-Pajaritos).
The new project presented by AGUNSA
The new railway option would start in Mapocho station, would go through Til Til, Olmué and Limache to finish its journey in Viña del Mar and Valparaíso.
The new project was presented by a consortium of companies formed by the Spanish Talgo, AGUNSA and FCC.
Train to the airport, Line 10 and possibility of subway in regions
Another of the points that the President addressed in his speech was the connectivity problem that currently affects the Santiago airport, due to the lack of public transportation to the airport and to which it intends to provide a prompt solution. Well, although in recent years different ways of fixing this problem have been proposed, such as the extension of line 7 of the underground to the airport -a project that different experts have ruled out due to the large investment that would have to be made- or the implementation of more buses.
Piñera revealed that the option chosen by the Executive would be the creation of a train to the Pudahuel airport. On the same occasion, the President took the opportunity to inform that some Metro Lines will be extended and again showed his intention to create Line 10, which had been announced in January this year by the Head of State.
"We are promoting a profound modernization of our public transport system, which includes the duplication of the Metro network in the Metropolitan Region, going from 150 to almost 300 km, through the recently inaugurated Line 3, the new Lines 7, 8, 9 and 10, and the extensions of Lines 2 to San Bernardo, 3 to Quilicura, 4 to Bajos de Mena, 6 to Isidora Goyenechea and the train to the airport", commented the President. Additionally, the President revealed that "we have also begun studies to analyze the feasibility of building underground in other cities, starting in Concepción".
Source: EMOL
