Metro for Christmas

[NewsWhore]

Transport Reorganization Office (OPRET) director Diandino Pena has announced that the Santo Domingo Metro will finally open to the public on 15 December 2008. Fares will be between RD$20 and RD$25. Pena says the system is in its final stages of preparation, noting that it is difficult to get all 19 trains moving together, arriving at the stations all at the same time. Pena says that Metro employees have now been trained, and that training that would take two years in other countries was completed in less than six months. According to Hoy, the government will have to subsidize the cost of the fares. Pena says that users would be able to save at least 30% per month by using the Metro. However, the route that will be served by the Metro, Villa Mella-Feria, can currently be traveled using public buses (guaguas) for the same RD$25 cost. Construction on the controversial Metro project began in 2005. On 27 February 2008 President Leonel Fernandez traveled on the metro for the first time, prompting many to say that the project was a tool to help Fernandez get re-elected in 2008. Officials responded by saying the project was meant to help curb the chaos of the current public transport system. Although this line of the Metro isn't complete, officials are planning a second one, from Los Alcarrizos to San Luis.
Meanwhile, the Fenatrano bus union plans to march to the OPRET offices urging the government office in charge of the Metro to improve the distribution of bus routes that will feed the Metro project. Fenatrano president Juan Hubieres says that the Metro will displace 20,000 drivers who work on the current metro route. According to Hubieres the move will directly affect 5,000 drivers and indirectly affect 5,000 drivers. The transport union leader also mentioned the possibility of a national work stoppage that could take place next week.

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