South Zone of Santiago receives 214 new electric buses

Monday, August 26, 2024. With a focus on territorial equity, the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Juan Carlos Muñoz, announced this morning the incorporation of 214 electric buses of the Red system for the southern sector of Santiago, benefiting about 280 thousand users weekly.

The fleet of the Voy company, runs through the communes of San Bernardo, El Bosque, La Cisterna, San Ramón and La Pintana, and comes to replace the old orange and white buses that for years provided services in the sector, bringing the Red standard to this area of the city. “We have put all our energies into continuing to advance in electromobility, but thinking about people who, no matter where they live or where they are going, can travel in more comfortable, safer and less polluting buses. Advancing in zero-emission buses, with low noise levels, is a huge improvement in the quality of travel that millions of people make daily, but also in the quality of life of the entire city,” said Minister Muñoz.

The new Yutong brand units have security cameras, Wi-Fi, USB chargers, air conditioning and better accessibility conditions. They have an estimated capacity for 90 passengers and are already operational in 14 services, with a gradual implementation that has been worked on since March.

For her part, the director of Metropolitan Public Transport, Paola Tapia, indicated that “this is another step in the advancement of networked electromobility, which today has 2,480 zero-emission units, the largest electric fleet in the world after Chinese cities. Modernization that also goes hand in hand with new services, such as the G34 that for a few weeks and with these new buses, allows residents of San Bernardo and El Bosque, to reach the La Cisterna Metro”.

In this sense, the authority recalled that currently 70% of the buses in the system have Red standard and only 30% remain with Transantiago standard.

Meanwhile, the mayor of San Bernardo, Christopher White, thanked the Government for the willingness to do justice in the southern area of the Metropolitan Region. “After several decades, a concrete signal is given such as the real improvement of public transport, with new services, with a quality that does not have to be sent to any commune because they are the same buses as the rest of Santiago, and that improves the travel times of families improving the quality of life.”

Likewise, the mayor of El Bosque, Manuel Zúñiga, said that “the community is happy when progress arrives in the commune, and this is of good quality. The standards of these buses allow us to have security that we did not have before, in addition to new routes. That is the way to solve our simplest and most humble communities. That is what the neighbors want: that the State be present, that the State effectively solve their problems.”

The mayor of La Cisterna, Joel Olmos, stressed that “the impact of these investments on people who live farther from the center but who also need it most is being considered, given that it is very difficult for a person to travel more than an hour and a half to get to work, and that happens in the southern sector. We have seen how new investments have been incorporated in the Gran Avenida axis for the benefit of the equity of users.”

With the incorporation of these 214 electric buses, the company Voy Santiago becomes the first with 100% of its fleet operating with Red standard, leaving the orange buses only as a reserve in case of contingencies.