What is the Old Adage About Making the Trains Run on Time?
Maybe this is a lesson that all nations should learn. Politicians should lead, but the deals should fall to the engineers. If I had to guess, Santiago’s transportation problem probably has to do more with corruption, political interference, and incompetence than Chile’s actual ability to make the trains run on time. Barely more than a year in office, President Michelle Bachelet is suffering a sharp slide in voter confidence as her administration scrambles to salvage a botched public transport overhaul that has wreaked havoc in this capital. The Transantiago plan, designed to improve the city’s chaotic system of buses and reduce pollution from the transit vehicles’ exhaust, has instead stranded passengers, generated marathon waits and overtaxed the city subway. Scores of angry protests have erupted, and lawmakers, social activists, clergy and those at both ends of the political spectrum have condemned the project as an unmitigated, and preventable, disaster. At this point, fixing the tr
