Santiago’s public transport system is integrating a fleet of 120 ecological buses, said Chilean Minister of Transportation and Communications Gloria Hutt on Wednesday.
These new vehicles, “apart from being environmentally friendly, meet the new Metropolitan Mobility Network standard,” the new standard of the public transport system in Santiago, according to the minister.
Hutt said that 80 of these buses are already in operation, transporting more than 230,000 passengers per week in the Chilean capital. They expect the rest of the vehicles to come into service next week.
The buses are equipped with a larger amount of priority and XL seats, air-conditioning, Wi-Fi, USB ports, cameras and a driver’s cabin for greater security, Hutt said.
The buses also have a georeferencing security system, which allows the vehicles, via Global Positioning System, to detect security zones such as schools, hospitals and other high-traffic areas and to automatically reduce speed.
Fernando Saka, director of public transport for the metropolitan region, said that with the integration of this fleet, “the system will have a total of 813 buses that meet the new standard, 203 of which are electric buses.”
According to the director, the use of this low-emission vehicles is in line with the Chilean government’s goal to lower public transport pollution by 35 percent by 2022.
