Railways and trains vs roads and trucks
Thousands of motorbikes and cars move through the country's roads, but these are also shared with buses and heavy-merchandise transport, like trucks. Similarly to railways, the roads network is not as developed as in other countries; most of roads have just one lane and two directions, that is why most of traffic can not move to a speed higher than 70 km/h and travelling between main cities takes a long time. The particular orography in Colombia presents different kind of challenges to the construction of transport infrastructure.
 |
| Road that connects Bogotá and Bucaramanga, in the place known as "Pescadero", near to Chicamocha's Canyon. |
Trains would bring a lot of benefits. Merchandise and passengers had moved in a higher quantity and faster, which would reduce costs of transportation, there would be less traffic jams in roads because most of heavy loads would move exclusively though the railways, use of trucks would be reduced only to transport goods to remote places and as consequence the environmental impact in terms of fossil fuel usage and noise would be lower.
 |
| Comparison between trains and trucks in different aspects |
 |
| Costs of transportation by trucks. The main cost is gasoline, and tolls represent between 11% and 12%. |
Sadly, there is not enough political will in Colombia. Instead of that, there is a lot of corruption, political and economical interests that don't allow thinking on the common well-being of Colombian people, problems which at the time led to dead one of the most promissory world's inventions that had arrived this land.
 |
| Constructions companies that manage the main road concessions in Colombia and its owners. Some of them also are owners of tolls. |
Personally, I found really interesting the facts you were talking about in this section of the blog. It is fascinating to know that if we use trains, the cost would be reduced, it would help to have less trafic, it would improve the environmental impact and, in general, everything would be better.
ReplyDeleteTrains are amazyng compared to trucks. They help the environment, they are cheaper, faster and have so many advantages. I don’t like traffic jams; when I go out of the city I hate taking more than 2 hours on the road just because there are many trucks. I think the truck driver don’t like either driving for long hours. To know that there are important people from the constructions companies that don’t care about this problems makes me feel angry and frustrated, because I wish my country has better things, to live in a better way and people be happier with an easier life.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your commentary. I hate traffic jams as well, also I think trucks generate many problems of pollution and greenhouse gases emission due to the gas they consume from one place to another, and this could improve with trains because they carry more merchandise than a truck and it could reduce gas consume.
ReplyDelete