travel

No metro train service yet

During the Moscoso administration plans were announced for a two-line Panama-San Miguelito light rail system to help alleviate the metro area's chronic and worsening traffic congestion. Money was spent on developing the plans, and special interest influence was applied to keep the line to serve Juan Diaz and San Miguelito from being extended to Tocumen Airport as any reasonable plan would have done. In any case, Mireya had higher spending priorities --- herself, her relatives and her political inner circle, for some notorious examples --- and the project was left on the drawing board. Then, in keeping with Panamanian political tradition, the new administration didn't consider building on and improving on the previous government's plans. The light rail plan was scrapped in favor of replacing the owner-operated diablo rojo urban buses with a system of new "articulated" that will be driven by employees of someone else, starting in 2007. This this Christmas decoration on the median of Via Argentina is about the closest thing we will see to a Metro Panama City urban rail system for some time to come. Photo by Eric Jackson