On front page of DR1 news:
Metro: taxpayer nightmare
It took 2 months and legal action, but journalist Edwin Ruiz of Clave finally got the figures to write his story on how the reality of the first year of the Santo Domingo metro compares to projections made for justifying the construction of the first line. The metro promoters had estimated 200,000 passengers and RD$4 million a day in revenues per day. But the reality of the first six months is that on average 50,643 (including both routes) passengers have rode the metro paying RD$1,012,856 in fares (at RD$20 the fare). The at least RD$3 million daily deficit needs to be picked up by taxpayers. Thus the "dream" of President Leonel Fernandez seems to have turned into a nightmare, at least for taxpayers.
The metro cuts the time to get from Villa Mella to La Feria from 2 hours to 20 minutes. The service is world class. But where are the users? It is not that they would not like to take the modern metro, it is that the feeder routes are not there, and passengers have to pay other fares anyway to take the metro. Hamlet Hermann, former director of the Metropolitan Transport Authority, explains the government did not heed advice to create the feeder routes first.
The stats on the Metro show that the least used stations are those at the Maximo Gomez Cemetery (63 users per hour), the Mirador del Norte (60 users per hour) and La Isabela (54 users per hour). The most used stations are at the two extremes. The Mama Tingo at Av. Charles de Gaulle in Villa Mella shows 636 users per hour, and the La Firia receives 456 users per hour.
Moneywise, the metro is a big loser. With a fare of RD$20, it generates barely RD$1,02,856 daily, or approximately RD$370 million a year, equivalent to about US$10.3 million. Traditional motoconcho, guagua and concho transport favorably compete in price with the comfort of the metro.
According to the OPRET the metro cost US$674.6 million. But the IDB says the investment was US$54 milion per kilometer, or US$756 million.
OPRET has reported the government is subsidizing the metro with RD$22.5 million a month, or about RD$270 million a year. But Edwin Ruiz reports that in the 2009 National Budget RD$2.41 billion or US$64.8 million have been allotted for the operation of the metro. 86% of those funds would have come from abroad.
Opret says that the present cost per passenger is RD$35. The report indicates this means a RD$1.09 billion deficit needs to be assumed by taxpayers that most probably are not using the metro. The report concludes that around 25,000 persons a day benefit greatly from being able to use the US$750 million-metro.
The authorities of the Metro refused to sit for an interview with Edwin Ruiz after delivering the data.
The Reality that's totally ignored:
The metro promoters had estimated 200,000 passengers and RD$4 million a day in revenues per day. But the reality of the first six months is that on average 50,643 (including both routes) passengers have rode the metro paying RD$1,012,856 in fares (at RD$20 the fare). The at least RD$3 million daily deficit needs to be picked up by taxpayers. Thus the "dream" of President Leonel Fernandez seems to have turned into a nightmare, at least for taxpayers.
The metro cuts the time to get from Villa Mella to La Feria from 2 hours to 20 minutes.
The 200,000 ridership was correct! BUT!!!! And here is the pivotal point being ignored by even our own DR1 efficient staff:
The 200,000 daily ridership was the correct/founded/studied/agreed number of riders once ALL the primary lines of the SD Metro were IN service. Not line 1 alone as currently it operates... Not without the feeder system as it today operates... Most importantly NOT under the government's direct administration as today it operates...
As a matter of fact today ridership is averaging 65,000 + on weekdays and 40,000 + on weekends for LINE 1 ALONE!!!!!
Information provided half way is called "Misinformation"....
Hamlet Hermann, former director of the Metropolitan Transport Authority, explains the government did not heed advice to create the feeder routes first.
The feeder buses are NOT in operation for two (2) reasons:
#1- Buying buses to place the feeder routes directly by the gov, would create a conflict of interest and control once the SD Metro system is administered by the semi private-public entity that will take over operations. Any purchase and operation of the buses will entail that the gov would put the semi private -public administrators and system, to the exposure of cash flow, funding, drivers and support contract for the personnel operating the lines, validating of riders with rail system, etc...
#2 - Feeder buses are the primary fall back to the system, should it become inoperable at any given time frame during work hours. Stranding thousands of riders in platforms without the means to get to work using the same routes and fees paid.
The feeder buses will be the primary system the SD Metro will rely on for operations, thus making it imperative that it's under full and direct control of the service and bus infrastructure. Think NYC's MTA, which handles Bus, Rail, Metro and regional interlinks from one control source...
Moneywise, the metro is a big loser. With a fare of RD$20, it generates barely RD$1,02,856 daily, or approximately RD$370 million a year, equivalent to about US$10.3 million. Traditional motoconcho, guagua and concho transport favorably compete in price with the comfort of the metro.
The SD Metro is not even in full operational capacity (understand all the planned lines as projected for a 200,000 + ridership once it completes the phased plan) with barely a few months of operation, yet we fail to hear that the Puerto Rico Metro (ATI) is barely hanging much lower after YEARS operations and 80% loss in operational revenues. Compare apples to apples, not apples (SD Metro) to lemons (conchos)...
To put it a bit more clear for those not so good on fruity math: The SD Metro is the first Metro system built to reach operational capacity of less than 40% of projected service length, and still provide over 30% target ridership in less than 12 months of operations!!!! That's for ANY new metro system built ANYWHERE in the world, including the NYC Metro...
According to the OPRET the metro cost US$674.6 million. But the IDB says the investment was US$54 milion per kilometer, or US$756 million.
OPRET has reported the government is subsidizing the metro with RD$22.5 million a month, or about RD$270 million a year. But Edwin Ruiz reports that in the 2009 National Budget RD$2.41 billion or US$64.8 million have been allotted for the operation of the metro. 86% of those funds would have come from abroad.
The figures offered by OPRET are the definitive lions share of the SD Metro construction costs per Km. The IDB is providing the figures that INLCUDE the actual work on roads, paving, peripheral construction that was undertaken as the Metro construction went on. These works were slated to take place with or without the Metro being built. The gov decided to include them in the contracts offered for bids, in an attempt to get maximum value for the loaned buck, and it did...
That's like saying that your home that your building, is costing 100 million pesos, but the access road to it is in shambles and for your kids to cross the road a mini bridge is the safer option, over a super speeder running them over your avenue. You decide that including a rework of the access road and a mini bridge is in order to complement your new home. When you sell the house what do you think you can include as expenses to build it to a new buyer? The road access? The bridge? Ask him if that's part of the house he's buying and paying for... Those are secondary peripheral upgrades that were called for, not needed or mandated/planned/projected/included as part of the house construction costs...
What Edwin doesn't says is that the allocation to the Metro by the Gov in the national budget, includes the aforementioned upgrades taking place still after the metro stations were built and the inclusion of funds for city and cabildos to make up for the extra stuff that's now needed to be kept and maintained under the responsibility of the public services and not the Metro. Think that all those columns and surroundings to Metro stations, infrastructure, etc... now need to be properly serviced and maintained on street level, not in the system... Not even to include the security afforded to the system in it, which is the primary responsibility of the gov, NOT the Metro administration....
Without adding that everything that needs to address peripheral or services created as the Metro was built, needs to be made from scratch for a system that wasn’t there to begin with. You can't provide services for something that didn't exist before with something that doesn't exist as well to that end. That's included in that "budget" allocation...
Why would you sit with a "reporter" that will anyhow use what he wants and not the whole picture as it's?
If OPRET or the gov was to address and sit with every reporter in the DR that "investigated" and "reported" as this guy did on the METRO SYSTEM, it would need to appoint a 20,000 member staff, ministers and all to handle the daily and hourly "sit" ins needed to clear their "investigations"...
Truly I expected much more than this terrible coverage from DR1!
Since the first second OPRET offered the 200,000 expected daily ridership, it worded the figure correctly to the "ONCE THE LINES ARE IN OPERATION" not "LINE 1 IS IN OPERATION"....
Problem is that "OUR" reporters are analphabets that need to think critically before using their thumbs to type their "reports" in the PC for editors...
Where should I now put DR1 on this one here????
