Valparaíso Metro

Valparaíso Metro
Info
Locale	Gran Valparaíso
Transit type	Rapid transit
Number of lines	1
Number of stations	20
Operation
Began operation	2005
Technical
Track gauge	1676mm (broad gauge)

Metro Valparaíso (also called "Merval") is the metro system serving the urban conglomeration of Gran Valparaíso, Chile , connecting the cities of Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, Quilpué, Villa Alemana and Limache, this last one, outside of the conurbation. It is administered by the company Metro Regional de Valparaíso S.A., a subsidiary of the Chilean state-owned train company Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado. It was inaugurated on November 23, 2005 and began operations the following day. Together with Concepción's Biotren and the much bigger Santiago Metro they are the three subway systems in Chile.

Valparaíso Metro symbol

History

Train entering the Puerto station

Valparaíso had an interurban passenger train system since the 19th century, but it could not be called a metro due to infrequent train service and a number of other shortcomings. In 1999 construction began on the current system, tearing down the old stations and building new ones with an homologous design shared between them. In Viña del Mar, a tunnel more than 5 kilometers in length was constructed. The new trains specially made for the new system arrived in Chile February 22, 2005 and the old system was decommissioned on June 30 of the same year.

Architecture

Route map for the Valparaíso Metro.

Between the stations of Puerto and Recreo, the train runs at street level, bordering the coast, parallel to Errázuriz and España Avenues. Then the trains descend into a tunnel below Viana and Álvarez Avenues, and four stations in this sector are underground. The train exits the underground in the industrial sector of El Salto, and the train continues along a winding path to the inner metropolitan area.

Fleet and operations

27 single-deck multiple-car X'Trapolis train sets manufactured by Alstom, France operate the service. Trains have a blue and white livery.

Services operate daily between 06:30-22:30 on weekdays; 07:30-22.30 on Saturday, and 08:00-22:15 on Sunday and public holidays. Services between Puerto and Sargento Aldea are most frequent on the line at 6-minute frequency.^[1] Services covering the whole line have a 12 minute frequency, and 18 minutes in weekends and public holidays.

Ticketing and fares

Limache bound unit at the station in Portales

Metro Valparaíso uses a smart contactless card as unique payment method. Its price as of September 2010 is Ch$1.200 (USD 2,40) and its sold in all of the stations. The card needs to be scanned both entering and leaving the stations, since there are different fares depending on the length of the journey and the time of day it takes place. There are 5 Zones and 3 time-of-day fares. Tickets go from Ch$204 (USD 0,40) in low-usage hours within Zone 1, to Ch$716 (USD 1,50) in rush-hour travelling through the 5 current fare zones, that is, from Valparaíso to Limache. Entering and leaving the same station will result in charging the highest fare.

There are also available concession cards for students, senior citizens, and disabled or handicapped people. Children below one metre height travel for free.

Customer service and information office is located in Viña del Mar station.

See also

• List of metro systems
• Transantiago
• List of Valparaíso metro stations

References

1. ^ http://www.urbanrail.net/am/valp/valparaiso.htm

External links

• Official site