With the presence of the directors and advisers of the Institutional Management and Performance Committee of the Regional Railway Company, The Regiotram manager, Andrés Díaz Hernández, presided over the Strategic Planning conference where the preparation of the Strategic Plan and the 2023 Action Plan was carried out.
The aforementioned plans define the lines of action, strategies, objectives and institutional goals that will direct the public action of the Company during this year, in coordination with the goals of the departmental Government 2020-2023, regarding the improvement of mobility, with the purpose of advancing in the institutional strengthening and in the missionary projects Regiotram de Occidente and the Extension of the NQS trunk of the Transmilenio system to Soacha phases II and III.
This project is part of the initiatives of the Bogotá-Cundinamarca Metropolitan Region, created in 2021 in order to promote the integration of the city with neighboring municipalities, in addition to contributing to closing connectivity gaps in the region. The works are led by the Government of Cundinamarca and the Regional Railway Company SAS, and are part of the recovery of the railway corridor to make it available to the Western Railway Concessionaire (CFRO).
In this sense, THE NEW CENTURY talked with Fernando Rey, civil engineer, professor at the Faculty of Civil Engineering from University Santo Tomas and consultant in transport systems on the feasibility of the project.
“The Facatativá commuter train, today called Regiotram, is a suburban train that takes advantage of the old railway corridor that connected the town of Facatativá with the municipalities of Madrid, Mosquera and Funza to reach Bogotá,” the expert contextualized.
Specifications
The Regiotram de Occidente starts approximately at Carrera 17 with Avenida Calle 6 in the city of Bogotá, connecting with the first line of the Bogotá Metro. Subsequently, take Carrera 17 south to Calle 20, and from there continue west, where it intersects with the Western Railroad (existing)and from that point its layout runs along the aforementioned route, and crosses the NQS and Av. Américas.
Continue along the Western Railroad Corridor to the west, crossing Av. Carrera 50, Av. Carrera 68, Av. Boyacá, the San Francisco Canal and Av. Ciudad de Cali, to the Fontibón Station. From said station it continues along the Western Railway Corridor to the limit of the Capital District with the municipality of Funza.
APassing the administrative limit, the project continues to the municipalities of Funza and then Madrid, where it crosses under Highway 50 and continues parallel to the highway that connects Mosquera with Madrid.
In the latter, it runs along Calle 8 until it passes the Madrid river and from there it continues crossing again under Highway 50 and crosses the greenhouse area until it reaches the town of El Corzo, along Highway 50. At the exit of this town, the route continues along Highway 50 until it reaches the municipality of Facatativá, where it runs along Carrera 1 until it reaches Calle 9, where the Facatativá-Calle 9 Station is located, at the end of the route.
The system will mobilize more than 125,000 passengers a day and will have a total investment of 5.3 billion pesos, in a route of about 40 kilometers. According to the initial studies, it is expected that the use of the Western Regiotram will allow a journey that currently takes about 120 minutes to be completed in about 40 minutes.
The problems
“Initially it was scheduled to end at the Estación de la Sabana; however, several problems were found: the corridor had to be delivered without being affected, such as the invasion, there were some illegal road crossings and it had other difficulties such as the crossing over the Ecopetrol pipelines that take the jet pipeline to the El Dorado Airport. That study was finally rejected by the Chinese and, as happened with the Metro, curiously, any day now they have already awarded the project to a Chinese company, which is the one that is currently working on the project,” explained Rey.
Under this premise, the expert points out that one of the most complicated problems that Regiotram has is the lack of crossings.
“There must be crossings not only on the Faca route in the District limits, but also at its entrance to Bogotá because it must pass Cundinamarca Avenue, Boyacá Avenue, Carrera 68, 42 Avenue, the NQS, etc., and it will have to define if it is a single viaduct or if they make some crossings that can be worked through traffic lights, ”he said.
Despite the fact that this process is currently being carried out, it has had quite considerable delays, according to Rey.
“The Chinese of the company that won the tender have not learned that here in Colombia there is a different way of contracting, that here the situation of development of works is not like in China; So there have been a series of difficulties regarding the environmental impact and the adequacy of the spaces, which I would say will serve to leave machinery and equipment”, he asserted.
The expert concluded by pointing out that, although delayed, the Regiotram is going to come out and has a future.
Criticism of the project
Councilwoman Heidy Sánchez, from the Patriotic Union Party, asserted that the railway system cannot continue to be planned in order to make the bus system viable.
“Regiotram of Occ. small for Troncal TM in Cl. 13, Regiotram Norte small for Troncal de TM 7ma. No more! The bus system must feed the railway with the highest capacity. In relation to the Regiotram of the North, this must be a massive rail transport project, unlike what they are doing in the Regiotram of the West, and it cannot have a load capacity of less than 30,000 p/h/s.” the lobbyist pointed out through her Twitter account.