A Country Tied by Hand and Foot ... and by Wheels

In Costa Rica there will never be a Metro, nor an urban electric train, nor any type of efficient public transport system simply because it does not suit the bus companies.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

EDITORIAL

Lack of strong political leadership and a government with real capabilities is preventing Costa Rica from making the indispensable  -and also inevitable- changes needed for it to regain its position as a leading nation in terms of economic and social development in Central America.

In the absence of such leadership, the forces that prevail in Costa Rican society -those which really govern- are the groups sheltering behind virtually impregnable walls of privileges, walls built using thousands of abusive standards as bricks, and the now distorted concept of "acquired rights" as mortar.

The result is a continued loss of competitiveness for the Costa Rican economy, in that the necessary evolution of the modes of production and the interrelation of productive resources is not materialising, as it is in all other countries making progress.

As noted an editorial on Nacion.com, for 20 years attempts have been made to modernize the public transport system in the metropolitan area of Costa Rica, without any of the five governments involved having been able to make this modernization happen, having always yielded under pressure from the owners of bus companies.

And it is not only the zoning plan - which the current administration threw away by means of tortuous change over of the staff responsible for this issue- which is not acceptable to the interests of bus companies. Nor will there be an urban electric train, a subway, or any other project that threatens their well developed interests, which are currently totally against those of the ordinary people and the country's development.

See editorial in Nacion.com: "Two decades of stories" (In Spanish)

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More on this topic

Panama and Costa Rica Run Counter to Rest of the World

January 2015

Free parking in Panama and heavy trains running through the streets of the capital of Costa Rica, are examples of some of the strange decisions taken by their governments.

EDITORIAL

While the rest of the world discourages the use of private cars as a means of transportation, increasing the costs of their use by setting, among other methods, high costs for parking in urban areas, in Panama, whose capital city suffers like any other city from the growing problems of congestion on the roads, the National Assembly recently passed a law that mandates free parking in "commercial parking lots of any kind or public offices where purchases are made, goods acquired or any services received. "

Bus Renewals in Costa Rica

January 2013

The renewal of the public transport fleet begins with the importation of about 300 buses powered by liquefied petroleum gas.

The renewal of bus concessions to be made by businesses by mid-2013 and early 2014 will be used by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) to bring in units which use cleaner energy sources, such as LPG or CNG (Natural Gas).

$40 million More for Centranorte Project

June 2012

Banrural and the German Bank for Development and Investment have granted a loan to Servicios para Centrales S.A. to finish building the bus transfer terminal CentraNorte in Guatemala.

The Rural Development Bank (Banrural) and the German Bank for Development and Investment (DEG, by its German acronym), have agreed to pay $40 million to the company Servicios para Centrales S.A., to complete construction of the bus transfer terminal CentraNorte, reported Elperiodico.com.gt.

Guatemala to Modernize Suburban Transportation System

February 2010

Brazil will provide technical assistance and credit lines for modernizing the suburban system for short routes.

Those companies currently involved in outer urban transportation will have to merge into a single company, in order to jointly invest in the technology required for the project.

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