travel

The more than 700 converted used school buses --- diablos rojos --- that form the backbone of Panama City's public transportation system may be on the way out, but it's a story we have heard before. In the Moscoso administration ambitious plans were made for a two-line light rail system for the metro area, but the money wasn't there to start construction. Now the Torrijos administration has decided that the rail system would be too expensive, and is tending toward a city transport system based on large articulated buses that have much larger capacities than the vehicles that are currently used. The economics of metro transportation reform would surely make even this relatively modest change difficult because it would entail putting many bus drivers out of work. However, the increasing gridlock on the streets of the capital, the many accidents involving buses and the failures of various fixes that have been tried add up to a probablity that the drivers' objections will sway neither the public nor the politicians. Photo by Eric Jackson