San Juan Tren Urbano Heavy Rail System, Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico's Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW) proposed in 1989 to construct a heavy rail system called Tren Urbano. For the first time in the history of Puerto Rico the first mass transit project is expected to become operational. It will transport passengers in San Juan, capital of Puerto Rico, and the surrounding urban areas. The initial phase of Tren Urbano will serve three central municipalities of the SJMA, Bayamón, Guaynabo, and San Juan, and cost an estimated $1.25 billion.

The project has been prompted by the need to find a lasting solution to the continually rising traffic levels in the conurbation.

RAIL LINK

The Puerto Rico administration decided to go ahead with a rail link in 1994. The start of the design and construction of the first phase of the project began in 1996. The first phase will be put into operation in 2001.

TREN URBANO FIRST PHASE

Phase 1 of Tren Urbano is designed to bring a new mode of transportation to the most congested sections of the San Juan Metropolitan area.

Phase 1 will operate 20 hours a day, with trains running every four minutes during peak hours in the morning and afternoon. Though trains will have operators aboard, the system will be completely automated, with a double-track guideway that will serve an estimated 115,000 passenger per day.

The 17.2 kilometres long connection includes 16 stations running from Bayamon to Santurce. There is a centrally located storage and maintenance yard where the operations centre will also be located.

SIEMENS AND EQUIPMENT PROVISION

The complete mass transit system is being built as a turnkey project. The contract award has gone to Siemens. Siemens has involved the following smaller companies as partners: Alternate Concepts, Inc. and Juan R. Requena & Associates.

Under the terms of the contract, Siemens provides 74 vehicles, the traction power system, the train control system, an operating control centre, the communication system, elevators & escalators, fare collection systems, 16 stations, as well as track construction, workshops, depots and equipment. The German company will have to supply 9.3 km of aerial structures, the heavy rail line itself and a 1.4 km tunnel

Siemens Transit Team which will operate the system for the first five years after completion according to a design-build-operate contract. Siemens will have an option to extend this operating phase by five years if it wishes.

DTPW FUTURE PLANS

The DTPW is already planning future phases of Tren Urbano. The first will be Phase 1a, which will extend the initial line from the edge of Santurce to its heart at the Minillas Government Centre. Phase II will branch the system from Río Piedras east to a major park and ride facility at a terminus in Carolina. In addition, the DTPW plans to build TU Conexión, a medium capacity transit system that will go into service along Roosevelt Avenue by 2002, linking the De Diego, Domenech, and Hato Rey Centro stations of Tren Urbano with the Plaza Las Américas shopping mall. Additional future Tren Urbano lines will extend the Tren Urbano system to the airport in Isla Verde, the city of Caguas, and eventually to Old San Juan, thus providing access to all major activity centres of the metropolitan region.

FINANCING

The Tren Urbano funding will come from three main sources.These are: FTA Capital Programmes Funds, Flexible USDOT formula funds and Bonds. Phase I of the Tren Urbano project has total capital costs of about $1.55 billion.