Has the Train Really Been a Benefit for Everyone?

The train started working in Costa Rica in the year 2005, and it was thought as an alternative mean of transportation to decrease traffic jams, especially for people who commute from one province to another everyday. Many people have expressed their satisfaction and gratefulness with the new service. Unfortunately, as many other things in Costa Rica, the service was started without implementing the necessary security measures. Moreover, people and cars have been hit by the train and nobody seems to feel particularly concerned about it, not even the media, even though they enjoy blaming public employees for their mistakes. It seems that the train is an exception to being responsible for an accident. All these facts demonstrate that the country was not prepared for the train and many changes should have been made before starting the new service.

The media and the government have only talked about how “magical” and wonderful the train is. It has been said that it is a cheap mean of transportation that helps Costa Ricans save money; it has been reported that it has diminished the problem of traffic jams, even though they have never said how they measured it or if they can prove it. People who use the train everyday actually feel very happy and the country has just accepted this version of the story without questioning it. Costa Rica has systematically ignored the fatal incidents that the train and its operators have provoked.

In terms of traffic jams, I wonder if somebody has asked the hundreds of people that get into a traffic jam everyday in different parts of the country because they are expecting the train to come at any moment or waiting for it to finish passing by. These cars are stopped or slowed down at least for fifteen minutes everyday. The media has never interviewed the people who are in San José, near the court buildings, waiting for the traffic light to change and they suddenly see the train coming the wrong way in a one-way street; they basically have to run for their lives, even though there is no way to move, so the train does not run over their cars. Living that experience is frightening and confusing since one just can not understand why the Incofer thought it was fine that the train openly disobeyed the traffic law, as if it were not a vehicle like any other.

And like any other vehicle the train can kill and has killed many people in this country. Ana Félix López Centeno mother of seven children, was killed by a train that was on its way to “San Antonio de Belén” to transport soja. The piece of news of “Diario Extra” is surprisingly writer in favor of the Incofer, saying that the “very experienced” drivers had “even stopped” the train. I do not think it is a big help to stop the train when the victim has already been run over. Was it impossible for them to stop it beforehand? This death took place in the year 2006. “La Prensa Libre” reports the death of Gil Josué Rosales Pérez, who lived in front of the train tracks, but did not see or hear the train, and was killed by it in July, 2008. The argument used by the train driver, as usual, is “I honked the horn”. So, if the train operator honks the horn and for any reason you do not hear it, it is not his duty to stop; if you get killed it is your fault. I know for sure that this is not the way things work for car, bus or truck drivers. Two people have died because they fell asleep on the train track in 2005 and 2008. Even though the newspapers say that the train “tried to stop”, they always stop when the body of the victim is completely destroyed. “La Nación” says that the train operators are not “usually” taken to court because of the circumstances of the accident. As far as I know, anybody who kills someone, even by accident and no matter the circumstances, has to be taken to court and has to complete a trial. I just can not find the reason why this is different for a train operator.

This kind of accident has also happened in other countries, such as Spain, countries in which the train has been operating for decades and the train track cover miles and miles of territory. These tracks, however, have their own way in the cities; they do not suddenly get into the cars way, and most of the tracks actually run far away from normal streets or sidewalks. And still they have had accidents. We need to take into account that some people are deaf, some others have mental problems, and some, like our elderly citizens, never got used to the fact of waiting for a car, a bus or a train to pass by, and the train drivers should take precautions considering these circumstances. Some Costa Ricans still do not know how to cross a street by paying attention to traffic lights! For that reason, human beings should not be killed under the argument of “the train has the priority” (Carabaguiaz, president of Incofer). Nowadays the train is running new routes, and the owner of “Hotel La Amistad” in “Barrio Otoya” felt the need to hire two people to warn the cars and pedestrians about the train. He made this decision after the crash of the train with a bus last September first, in which seven passengers were injured. How is it possible that citizens have to implement the security measures that the government and the Incofer should have thought about even before the train started working? Is it possible that Costa Ricans think that all the accidents and deaths are acceptable as long as we can commute cheaply?

Viviana Arroyo