MOPT Plans Megabuses  For January
The Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transporte (MOPT) is negotiating with the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) for a us$15 million loan for the project known as "Sectorización de San José" - sectoring San José.

The project is three years in the planning and forms part of the "Plan Maestro del Gran Área Metropolitana" - master plan for the Metropolitan area - that was unveiled in 1982, which has a main objective of bettering the quality of service and comfort of those use the bus system.

The financing will be used by the MOPT, in the first stage of the plan, to re-organize some of the most travelled routes in the city like Paseo Colón and the Pavas route that comes into downtown San José.

The idea is to use 24 "megabuses" on the route that will carry a greater amount of people on each trip. The objective is to reduce the number of buses daily on the route.

The megabuses, buses that already in use in major cities in North America, South America and Europe, can carry up to 180 passengers in compared to up to 80 on the current buses used on the route. The 18 metre long buses will carry passengers from Lomas del Río in Pavas to the Coca Cola station in San José.

Viviana Martín, viceminister of Transport, said that the buses will run every three minutes during peak morning and rush hours, which will mean a 50% savings in time for passengers.

Minister Martín added that not only with the new buses save passengers time but they will in the end save on gasoline consumption wich is also good for the environment.

Currently some 3.000 buses make their way daily into San José, that include city buses making routes to various communities and buses coming from Guanacaste, Limon and other parts of the country.

The MOPT plan will include the use of exclusive bus lanes similar to what is being used on Avenida 10 currently.

The MOPT say it needs us$15 million dollars to improve the traffic signs, construction for the bus stops for the big buses and to widen the streets. Some us$2 million dollars will be used to produce and distribute special passes.

The concessionary - who will have to invest some us$250.000 for each bus - for the route is being defined.

If the MOPT obtains the loan the buses will be on the streets beginning January 2007. Minister Martín said she will be meeting with BID officials this coming week in the hopes of concluding a deal.