Thursday, March 7, 2013

City Hall re-opens Subte Line A

Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri re-opened the Subte underground train service A Line yesterday and expressed his belief that the City could reach a “shared agenda” with the national government over transport.

However, Interior and Transport Minister Florencio Randazzo, representing President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner at the event, criticized his City counterparts for a “disproportionate” increase in Subte fares.

“Today is a day of much joy. We have brought the A Line into the 21st century,” said the mayor in his speech yesterday, adding: “I know that there will be some nostalgic souls who will miss the Belgian wooden carriages but beyond romanticism, the carriages had entered a zone of danger and were not safe.”

“These new cars are modern and safe. We need people to travel better,” said Macri, while stating that “we are going to buy 105 more carriages.” The Mayor was also critical of the national government indirectly, when he said that “the deterioration of the last 10 years cannot be reverted from one day to the next,” and adding that the A Line renovations, which had seen the line shut for two months and was inaugurated two days early, had been executed in “as short a time required as possible.”

Macri thanked Randazzo for attending and said: “I hope this could be the start of a new stage. The transport system needs for us to co-ordinate our efforts; we are fully prepared to work with the national government on this.”

At the end of the event, Randazzo agreed, stating that “this is also a happy day for the national government,” which had invested “over a billion pesos” during its stewardship of the Subte service in the renovation of the tracks.

The minister said that the government was “always open to dialogue” but was critical about the increase of the Subte fare from 2.50 pesos to 3.50.

“I have been very clear on this issue. We believe that the 200 percent fare increases are disproportional and will damage the rest of the transport system,” said the minister.

The national government had bought the 45 new units from China while it was responsible for the service. The A Line was open from 8pm last night.

Herald with DyN