Failing Metro Bus service spawns government approved pirates

IF YOU cheered when the diablos rojos were replaced by the Metro Bus system take a deep breath. They are back in another form as white pirate buses that President Ricardo Martinelli recently endorsed via his Twitter account.

The endorsement was tacit acknowledgement that the much vaunted Metro Bus system has not lived up to the hyperbole.

The Metro Mi Bus Company has failed to fill the needs of the population, many of the previous diablos rojos owners have used their $25,000 per vehicle compensation to move back into the market place. They carry with them many of the attributes of their used school bus predecessor, blaring music, stopping on intersections and picking up and dropping passengers wherever they fancy and driving with all the abandon of derby demolition drivers
They have arrived to challenge Article 64 of the  Traffic Regulations and Law 42 of 2006, governing a public transport.
The Transit Authority (ATTT) was effectively sidelined by the implicit order of Martinelli to give indefinite temporary permits to buses, even though it is violating the rules. The Authority has also ignored Article 65 of the Traffic Regulations, which states that ' all vehicles for the collective, collegiate and tourism operators should be equipped with speed governors ( … ) ' .
The absence of this article has already led to the death of one passenger. Other incidents have included crashes and, in the Northern Corridor, running into a toll booth.
Marcos González, president of the Transport Committee of the National Assembly and who managed the permission for illegal buses, said the vehicles are insured and have an authorized Traffic indicating the health of the system label. “They have safe seats, have good standing at the ATTT with no outstanding tickets and logos are … are properly identified, “reports" La Estrella
In contrast, the Mi Bus concessionaire that operates the Metro bus, insisted that passengers using this kind of transport are on vehicles “that have no requirements for insurance for damage to third parties or passengers, maintenance, standardized fees and operating hours”.
“It has opened a Pandora's box “warns, Eliércer Montenegro President of the carriers of La Chorrera,
In the six months after the 'end' of the era of the Diablos Rojos, the illegality in public transport in the city has reached unthinkable levels says Estrella. The ATTT in fact, has no clear figures on how many pirate buses work in the city.
In one week, 75 mini-buses were given authority to operate on the Northern Corridor.
This anomaly is just the culture of improvisation in public transport. The city of our own sins says Estrella. Pirates say they provide a service because of the inability of the new mass transit system. That argument is repeated, throughout the city with the chorus of users, tired of waiting eternally for a Metro Bus, and the excuses and promises.
The Transit Authority has estimated that 750,000 daily users move into the city, and believed that 1,200 metro Buses could replace the 3000 Red Devils But the calculation was a failure. “Mi Bus has not fulfilled the expectations of users and that’s where the pirates have come in” says lawyer Victor Martinez.
Between 2010 and 2013 the State compensated 2,000 owners of buses with $25 million to more than two thousand owners of buses, which were delivered to be scrapped in Howard.

Luis Rodriguez, president of the National Chamber of Transport believes that there are those who invested their money in buying taxis. After all, after forty years operating buses business a radical change would be too risky.
The other thesis is that existing carriers themselves displaced by Metrobus are those with the most busitos today demanding the government remove them from the illegality. “It is a circle that ends reconverting the lucrative business and anachronistic diablo rojo”.
The scenario is further implied when the lawyer Hugo Polo is recognized as the figure behind the Northern Corridor carriers who received the presidential blessing and the political thrust of Marcos Gonzalez, San Miguelito deputy presiding over the of the Assembly Transportation committee.
Polo is a carrier of the old guard. He directed the Torrijos CarterTransportation Union   Torrijos Carter had about 10% of the buses in the capital city, which he claimed a major share of power in the transport unions.

The lawyer is also one of the visible faces of the corporation Carriers Union of Northern Corridor (Ultracon ), which confirmed González , coordinates pirates routes concerned. According to the Public Registry, was registered in 2003, and despite the extinction of red devils, remained standing.
With the ongoing restructuring, the pirates reveal that transport is a matter of inheritance, as with the Diablos Rojos. Those who hold the reins today, operated the old system. Says Estrella.