Still in training for the Liveable City!
“There is a quirky rickety little single railway track with a quirky two carriage train that slowly passes very near-by continually sounding its horn and quaintly tingling its bell in warning because there are no level crossings and I suppose also because it does run right in the middle of the street “.
When I first arrived in San José I thought it was ever so atmospheric to hear that train jangling its bell repeatedly as it passed through barrio(district) Lujan, just a stone’s throw from Hostel 1110. While walking and jogging over and around the simple single track I often pondered as to the meaning of ‘its’ life. The track seemed very old and I observed two types of train: either rather dilapidated looking haulage engines or extremely modern passenger trains that, oddly, never appeared to have any passengers. Whichever way I looked at it it left me with a sense of sadness. Something really wasn’t right? How could they possibly run a two-way service on a single track? They certainly wouldn’t be able to keep this train running economically with the passenger numbers I saw. I could only conclude that it would eventually degenerate to a standstill and San José would be left without any railway service, not even have the minuscule service that it appeared to have.
A casual inquiry of Rodrigo, the main man in charge back at Hostel 1110, soon revealed that there was far more to this than met the eye. Juan, one of Rodrigo’s partners had been very much engaged in the city’s urban transport planning and he explained to me that the introduction of an urban train network was part of a green plan for a “Liveable City” (Una Ciudad Habitable) for San José. What I had been observing was merely part of a kind of pilot plan.
This put a wholly different complexion on my sad quirky rickety confused train and its track. It immediately dispelled the sadness and engendered a new sense of well-being with the culmination of all good things coming together in a bright new future: modernization, reduced traffic congestion and numerous ecological benefits; not least less pollution. The in-depth coverage of the full plans on the TREM (Tren Eléctrico Metropolitano) web site backed up the seriousness of the initiative and heightened my own enthusiasm. “So when is this all going to happen, Juan?” I asked. “Well”, and those dirtily arresting words were uttered, “it is all so political”.
The project has been on the table for many years and has been subject to numerous stops and gos usually for political reasons and even now, although a timetable was set up up last year for full implementation to begin between this year and next, the latest Costa Rica administration under President Laura Chinchilla is currently in contemplation of another grand metropolitan transport plan which could result in well… presumably a bit of a delay at the very least. The announcement of those particular plans has rather inconveniently not been given a date yet either.
That is the story seen principally from barrio Lujan in downtown San José but to be more San José-encompassing there has at least been greater movement on plans along the principal stretch of the urban network between central San José and Heredia. The inauguration finally came about in August last year, overseen by the then President Oscar Arias Sanchez, but it has a limited service running in the rush hour on weekdays only. The global San José urban transport plan is now waiting for Laura Chinchilla and her government for the launch of that Liveable City initiative.
For a Spanish translation of this article – San José Una Ciudad Habitable
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