SANTIAGO

SANTIAGO TRANSPORTATION

Region Metropolitana, Central Chile

Air

The international airport Comodoro Arturo Merino Benitez is the national and international airport of Santiago. It is located at 15 minutes from downtown throught the urban expressways (Costanera Norte, Vespucio Norte).

Railroad

The Chilean trains are operated by the Company “Ferrocarriles del Estado”. It connects from Santiago until Chillan, in the center-south area of the country.

These trains arrive and leave from “Estacion Central”, where you can get by bus or subway.

The routes and coverage are:

• Santiago-San Fernando. • Santiago-Chillán. • Talca-Constitución. • Talcahuano-Hualqui. • Talcahuano-Renaico. • Victoria-Temuco.

Intercity buses

The bus companies offer passengers transport from Santiago to most of the regions of the Country, while some of these Companies offer also parcel and delivery service. There are many Bus Stations along Santiago: • San Borja: Located near “Estacion Central” subway station, where also the trains to Rancagua, Talca and Chillan leave.

• Los Héroes: Located near “Los Heroes” subway station.

• La Paz: Located near the municipality of Independencia, the closest subway station is “Puente Cal y Canto”. • Alameda: Is located near “Universidad de Santiago” subway station, here leave a variety of bus services to the south of Chile.

• Pajaritos: Located next to the subway station of Santiago, it offer bus services to the international airports, interregional services to Valparaiso, Viña del Mar and many coastal cities.

Roads

The city has intercity roads, where a ticket must be paid, these connect the ends of the city, including Vespucio expressway (that surrounds the city, describing a semicircle), Central expressway (that crosses all the city from north to south), and Costanera Norte (that begins on the west border, in Las Condes, until international Airport and the roads to Valparaiso at the west of the city).

Subway

With 101 stations in operation and 16 under construction, the Subway of Santiaago is the most extense subway system of South America. The system has five lines in operation and carries about 2,4 million passengers per day. Two lines (4 and 4A) and an extention of Line 2 were inaugurated at the end of 2005 and at the beginning of 2006. Additional extensions are currently under construction for the lines 1 and 5. An announcement of the plans for a new line was made by the ex-president Michelle Bachelleet. The Sur Express Line, Line 6, will be finished for 2014, this means the addition of 12 stations of the net and about 15km. of rail.

Urban Train

The company Trenes Metropolitanos S.A. offers an intercity railway service Ander the Metrotern brand. There is only one route to the south, serving 18 stations between Estaación Central of Santiago in Alameda and San Fernando, through Paine and Graneros. The electricity system has a length of more than 138 kilometers (85.75 miles). About 10 trains diary operate all the distance on each direction, with a maximum of 30 trains between Santiago and Graneros.

Bus

Transantiago is the name of the public transport system. It operates through the combination of local bus lines, the main bus lines and the Subway net.

It includes an integrated payment system that allows the passengers to transship from one bus to another or to the subway for the price of one ticket, using the intelligent card without contact (BIP). The fees can’t be paid with cash and if the card doesn’t have enough credit, it must be charged before the journey.

Taxi

The taxis are common in Santiago and are painted in black with yellow ceiling and have orange numberplate. The named radiotaxis can be called by phone and can be of any brand, model, colour, but they must always have orange numberplate. The long-distance taxis are shared taxis that carry passeners through a specific route by a fixed fee. Santiago also has some illegal taxis, without orange numberplate that indicate they have the license for it. These are specially common near the airport and, in general, must be avoid for security reasons.

Walk, run, biking

Since May to September, the smog that appears over Santiago make the outdoor exercises an activity difficult to practice. Out of those months, the local people walk, run, and ride bikes in the surroundings of Mapocho river (specially on Parque Forestal), in Parque Quinta Normal and along the soaring San Cristobal Hill. You can rent bikes and the respective hekmets, of “La bicicleta verde”.