Imagine the Guadalajara metro area populated by thousands of sleek, clean, modern buses with electronic payment systems, driven with care by professionally trained drivers.
That’s the aim of a new public transport model proposal signed this week by Jalisco government officials and representatives of 11 transport associations at the Palacio de Gobierno.
The move came in the wake of the recent suspension of a one-peso hike in bus fares across Jalisco.
Last week, Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval bowed to citizen and political pressure and nixed the increase from six to seven pesos. Surveys show that eight out of ten users of public transport in Guadalajara are unhappy with the level of service they receive.
“Fares must be directly proportional to the quality of service,” Sandoval said Sunday, April 7, as he announced the creation of a new model aimed at making public transport safer, more accessible, efficient and sustainable.
The model will focus on legal reform, the restructuring of routes, the modernization of transportation infrastructure, with the aims including the introduction of more professional drivers and newer vehicles with electronic payment systems. To oversee the implementation of these proposals, a commission will be established, comprised of four state officials, four transport association representatives and five members of civil society.
The commission will have its work cut out to improve the standards of public transport. Staffed by underpaid drivers who work long hours with very little rest, the nearly 5,000 buses that circulate in the Guadalajara metropolitan area every day have a notoriously poor safety record and have been involved in 20 fatal incidents already this year.
“We know that making transport more efficient reduces pollution and contributes to an improved quality of life,” Sandoval wrote on Twitter on Monday, also posting a clearly staged photograph of himself aboard a city bus.
The state government has said some 200,000 students in Jalisco will be given two free transvales (special three-peso bus fare vouchers) for each day of their studies, a pledge made by Sandoval during his campaign for governor last year. It is unlikely, however, that students from private universities and schools will be able to take advantage of the free travel program. Around 80 percent of public schools students use city buses, whereas the figure for private school students is less than ten percent.