The director of the Metropolitan Office of Bus Services (omsa), Radhames Gonzalezsaid that the creation of bus corridors operated through consortiums of transport companies does not pursue the disappearance of that institution, nor the privatization of that service.
“The law gives us the power to be State operators, just like the private operator, the only thing that we are from the State and they are private,” said the official, referring to the aspirations that the omsa operate corridors with characteristics similar to the one recently inaugurated on Winston Churchill avenue, in which new buses were put into circulation and whose ticket cost will be 35 pesos, which will be paid electronically.
“No one has thought of privatizing transport. Now, the law gave power to unions that have routes to become companies and can finance their buses themselves with their transportation system, and that has nothing to do with privatization”, González stated prior to his participation in the Transportation Thematic Table in which reforms for the sector are discussed in the Economic and Social Council (CES).
The Minister of the Presidency and in charge of the Office for the Development of Urban and Interurban Mobility Projects, Lisandro Macarrullahe said in statements to Free Journal that omsa it must compete in price and quality with the corridors that operate on Winston Churchill and Nuñez de Cáceres avenues, for which it must make improvements.
He announced that one of the routes in which it is intended that the omsa operates with similar characteristics to the aforementioned corridors is the one on Abraham Lincoln Avenue, where this institution has been providing services for several months.
In the event that new buses circulate in Lincoln, with electronic payment and with prices similar to those managed by transport consortiums, consulted users have divided opinions on the matter.
“The problem is that it is too slow; if it had been a faster route, one pays the ticket, even if it costs more”, said the user of the omsa Luis Emilio Rodriguez.
While the user Marisol Rosario said: “I would not agree, because there are many fathers and mothers of families who with a salary of fifteen thousand pesos are not enough for the month and paying more expensive house and ticket is not enough.”
On her side, Virginia Martínez expressed: “If we have a better service, it would be worth it; as long as we have a better service,” he said.
However, Héctor Montero considered that “although it lasts less and is more comfortable, one’s salary does not give.” “Let them raise their salary too,” he recommended.
