The ten cent train trip



Train service has returned in a limited fashion to El Salvador. Starting today, a passenger train runs four times a day from Apopa through Ciudad Delgado and into San Salvador and returns. The fare is only 10 cents -- this is designed to be cheap transportation for the poor. One casualty of the re-activation of the train line has been the dislocation of poor families living in shanties along the train track, victims of poverty and marginalization.

You can also visit the web site of the government authority which operates this train service.

Comments

El-Visitador said…
Oh my.

The Salvadorean state robbed (oops, "nationalized") a working system with hundreds of miles of track. A system that benefited the whole economy.

And this is what the state has done with it?

Let this be a lesson for those who want the State to take control of more of our lives.
3:14 AM
Anonymous said…
alwayz gotta feel bad for the people living in the shanty's, but hey, that area was not designated for housing in the first place. it actually pleases me that the train has been reactivated. this is sort of what i have imagined all along, something, though not ever exactly alike, but giving the service the metro systems in other urban centers give, cheap, efficient mass transportation. i know this is not much, but if the trend continues and eventually it is developed and modernized, this can be huge.
6:34 PM
Anonymous said…
Well, if areas by train tracks were not designated for housing I guess people who were displaced by the war and the 1986 earthquake never got the word not to move there when it was pretty much the only place to go. Maybe someone forgot to tell them.
7:21 PM
Anonymous said…
to anonymous:

so what do you want me to do about it? envite them to crash at my place? wait...my entire family was displaced due to the war also, and the few acres of land that we received from my grandfather were pretty much abandoned; so no i don't even have my very own place to call them in and let them stay with me. but still, i feel sorry for them. been there, done that.
9:31 PM
Post a Comment