translated from Spanish: Train ad Santiago-Melipilla: Piñera pulls an ace out of his sleeve in one of the worst weeks of his government

Rejection of fair admission projects and reform In Congress, the news about his son Cristóbal Piñera Morel’s business with public bodies, the INE’s data manipulation scandal, the fall of Dobra Lusic as a candidate for the Supreme Court within minutes of voting in the Senate, were the Ideal ingredients to set up one of the blackest weeks of this second administration Piñera.
But at its worst, the president took an ace up his sleeve and announced this afternoon in the coin the construction of the train Santiago-Melipilla, a historic yearning for the inhabitants of the south of the metropolitan region. “It will improve the lives of two million countrymen,” Piñera said, accompanied by scale models of the new trains that circulate along the railroads. The president appeared in the courtyard of the palace, accompanied by the Minister of Transport Gloria Hutt, the public Works owner Juan Andrés Fontaine, the Mayor Karla Rubilar, the president of EFE, Pedro Pablo Errázuriz, parliamentarians and mayors, to communicate the News, after the approval of the Environmental Assessment Commission.
The instance approved this afternoon the resolution environmental qualification of this project announced for the first time in 2013, in the first government of Piñera. Two years later, the state Railway Company (EFE) entered the environmental impact study, in a process that contemplated processes of citizen participation, as well as indigenous consultation, and more than seven thousand observations of the organizations Evaluators and citizens.
But it’s still a long-term work. The construction of the railway service will begin from next year, and the start of operations is scheduled for 2025.
According to the government figures, the project will unite Melipilla with Santiago in 46 minutes by 11 stations, and includes an investment of US $1.56 billion.
It will mobilize 60 million passengers per year and reduce travel times to more than two hours, which are transformed up to 22 days per year. It will benefit the inhabitants of Melipilla, El Monte, Talagante, Peñaflor, Padre Hurtado, Maipú, Cerrillos and Central station.
The project contemplates the purchase of 22 new trains, will connect with the lines 1 and 6 of Metro and will have integrated rate to Transantiago by means of the BIP card!, between Santiago and Maipú (satellite city). Also, between Melipilla and satellite city, the payment will be made by stretch, as occurs in Metro Valparaiso and Metrotren Rancagua, the portfolio reported.

Original source in Spanish