Costa Rica: A Desire Named Streetcar

Economic, political and public opinion factors seem to be lining up together making the new tram project for the capital San Jose have a good chance of coming to fruition.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

EDITORIAL

The promoter of the project Johnny Araya, City Mayor elected for the period 2016-2020, who had previously headed the commune between 1998 and 2013, garnering, despite numerous allegations of irregularities in his management, a popularity that led him to run as president of the Republic in elections which he lost decisively against the current president Luis Guillermo Solis. In 2016 Araya was again elected mayor of San Jose, favored by the popular vote which sees him as one of the few Costa Rican professional politicians with executive management capabilities.

The problem of traffic congestion in the Costa Rican capital has been getting worse in recent years resulting in unsustainable extremes, keeping in place a terrible public transport system using buses, which no administration has so far managed to optimize, mainly due to the de facto power exercised by bus companies, to which all governments have learned towards. While it does not solve the root problem, the tram proposed by Araya will at least alleviate it.

The project is not new, but now it is being favored over others for its restraint: it will run for 10 kilometers from the vertebral section that runs through the capital's urban core, and its cost will be $200 million, far less than the $1.5 billion of other proposals. And funding in the first instance will be possible through a trust based on revenue from tickets.

Beyond these details, this tram project for San Jose has better feasibility for other major reasons. One is that the road collapse in the capital is already insane, and the other that its promoter has demonstrated his ability to do the work, in all certainty maintaining his presidential ambitions, and that the realization of this project could provide definitive momentum for his political career.  

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