Authors: Tiffany Vu, Surbhi Bhavsar, Jenifer Bustamante, Divine Maduakolam, Arrizka Faida, Duxixi Shen, Gina Park, Thomas McKiernan, Jasmin Higo, and Natalie Alechko (Spring 2023 Infrastructure Practicum)
Contributors: John Foote and Mark Fagan
Edited by: Annika McGraw and Muhammed Hani Ahsan
Graphic by: Norie Wright
Preface
This policy proposal is the product of a graduate student infrastructure practicum offered by the MPA Program at the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. The purpose of this practicum is to present students with a real-world infrastructure challenge. The product of the practicum is a policy proposal to address the challenge. The Spring 2023 challenge was to identify actions to maximize the public value of Puerto Rico’s heavy rail commuter train called Tren Urbano.
Ten students (listed in Appendix 3) in master’s degree programs in public administration and regional planning participated in the 2023 practicum. This course consisted of a semester-long immersion into the dynamics of public transit and a week in Puerto Rico meeting with public officials, subject matter experts, and NGOs. A list of people and organizations the team met for this project is included in Appendix 3.
The team followed an established policy analysis framework that began with defining the problem (and refining this definition as information is collected). After determining the problem, the team started collecting both secondary and primary data, generating a set of alternatives, building a framework to evaluate the merits of the other options, and then constructing policy recommendations.
The following document lays out the set of policy recommendations. We hope that the ideas and concepts included in this document can contribute to the ongoing discussions in Puerto Rico regarding the future of Tren Urbano.
The views and positions included in this proposal are those of the students who conducted the research and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University, the Brooks School, or Cornell Policy.
Executive Summary
Tren Urbano is a heavy rail commuter train in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that was completed in 2004 for $2.25 billion. Tren Urbano has fallen far short of its ridership projections and requires a public subsidy from the Government of Puerto Rico of approximately $70 million annually. This subsidy, when divided by the number of pre-COVID riders, Tren Urbano, like most transit properties, has experienced a precipitous decline in ridership during and post-COVID, resulting in the per-trip subsidy of $14. The fact that there is a public subsidy is not a problem in itself, given most public transit systems around the world are subsidized; the issue is that the Government of Puerto Rico and the taxpayers are not getting a return on their investment.
This is not a new situation; Tren Urbano has underperformed regarding ridership since its opening. A recent organizational change, however, presents an opportunity to take actions that would increase the public value provided by Tren Urbano. Until recently, the Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority, which focuses on roads, was responsible for the train. In December 2022, this responsibility was moved to the Puerto Rico Integrated Transit Authority (ATI). ATI now operates all of the transit properties in San Juan, including Tren Urbano, buses, and ferries, and is positioned to operate the transit system in an integrated and networked manner.
Before meaningful changes are made, it is necessary to articulate why Tren Urbano’s ridership is significantly lower than projections. The primary reasons are (1) transit network inefficiencies, (2) Tren Urbano’s route terminates short of key population and economic centers in the city of San Juan, and (3) since the time of the design of Tren Urbano, there have been large investments in roads in the metropolitan area and car ownership is ubiquitous—for someone with access to a car, which is most people, taking the Tren Urbano is slower and less convenient.
While it is possible, albeit prohibitively expensive, to extend the route of Tren Urbano, it may not be possible to reverse the pervasive car culture in Puerto Rico. In our view, ATI has two other courses of action that have the potential to add public value; 1) make improvements to the service provided by Tren Urbano (for the benefit of existing users) and 2) use Tren Urbano as a catalyst for transit-oriented development (TOD). The U.S. Department of Transportation defines TOD as communities with a mix of commercial, residential, office, and entertainment land use, all located near transit. The guiding principle is to use transit to support vibrant, sustainable, and equitable communities.
- Actions to improve the service level and quality include:
- Improving the user experience in the Tren Urbano stations (signage, information, appearance, safety, and access).
- Building a comprehensive mobile transit app that will incorporate all forms of nonvehicular transportation.
- Developing and implementing an integration plan (routes, schedules, etc.) for Tren Urbano, public buses, and municipal trolleys.
- Working with micro-mobility (bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters) operators to define and implement access at each Tren Urbano station.
- Aggressively marketing spaces in the Tren Urbano stations to retail and commercial organizations.
- Training Tren Urbano station and train personnel in customer service delivery.
The second course of action is promoting development around Tren Urbano stations and along the Tren Urbano corridor. When Tren Urbano was initially conceived, transit-oriented development was one part of the implementation strategy. Over the last twenty years, the TOD plans were abandoned because the areas around most of the Tren Urbano stations are either primarily single-use and/or underdeveloped.
We are proposing a concerted effort to transform the Tren Urbano stations into hubs for mixed-use communities. Further, rather than think about these communities as islands, ATI and its governmental partners could foster a vibrant and sustainable corridor along Tren Urbano’s eleven-mile alignment, This corridor, if developed strategically, could offer a full range of services that are readily accessible, via transit, to residents who live in the corridor.
While system improvements and TOD probably will not increase ridership significantly, there should be incremental benefits to both Tren Urbano riders and the San Juan metropolitan area through a better functioning transit system and sustainable development.
Section 1: Background on Tren Urbano
History
The idea of a “metro” in San Juan was first introduced in Puerto Rico’s 1967 Regional Transportation Study to solve the problem of rising traffic levels in metropolitan San Juan. The original plan was for a 27-mile rail transit system to serve Old San Juan and the Airport.
In 1979 a less ambitious plan of 14 miles was proposed that connected San Juan with the municipalities of Bayamon and Guaynabo, but did not include Old San Juan or the Airport. This scaled-down alignment was made a part of the 1982 Regional Transportation Plan.
A decade later, the route was reduced to approximately 12 miles in response to budgetary constraints. Subsequently, the route was further shortened by 10.7 miles, terminating in Sagrado Corazon.
Tren Urbano was designed to address certain issues (problems) that were either present in the San Juan metropolitan area or were expected to manifest themselves in the near and intermediate future. The Environmental Impact Statement, completed in November 1995, sets forth the intended objectives (solutions) that Tren Urbano was designed to meet:
- Improve mobility within the San Juan Metropolitan Area
- Provide for a major expansion in public transit service capacity
- Improve public transit service efficiency, convenience, and reliability
- Minimize impacts on Puerto Rico’s physical environment
- Support economic growth in the San Juan Metropolitan Area
Construction of Tren Urbano commenced in 1996 with a projected completion date of 2001 and a budgeted cost of $1.25 billion. Over the next 8 years, the project encountered delays and cost increases as shown below:
Figure 3 – FTA Project Audit
An $833 million of Federal grants and $1.4 billion of “local” funds, primarily from borrowing by agencies of the Government of Puerto Rico financed the project.
Current Situation
In 2017 Bloomberg News observed,
“San Juan’s gleaming commuter train seemed like a coup — the kind of big-ticket item many U.S. cities can only dream of. More than a decade on, the Tren Urbano is a monument to the folly, bloat, and abuse that finally bankrupted Puerto Rico. Despite years of planning, it sells only a third of the rides it needs to and loses roughly $50 million a year”.
Up until the beginning of 2023, Tren Urbano was the responsibility of the Puerto Rico Highways & Transportation Authority (HTA). (Note: As described below, this responsibility has been transferred to the Puerto Rico Integrated Transit Authority (PRITA), more commonly referred to as Autoridad de Transporte Integrado/ATI.)
In the fiscal plan filed by HTA for FY2022-FY2051, HTA states, “TU continues to stagnate in its ability to be an effective and efficient transit system capable of serving riders’ needs in the San Juan metropolitan area.” The Fiscal Plan highlights two metrics: ridership and farebox recovery ratio.
- Ridership: “While Tren Urbano was initially projected to attain a monthly ridership of approximately 3.4 million passengers by 2010, it currently has a ridership of only approximately 120,000 passengers per month.”
- Below is a summary of the number of annual riders since Tren Urbano began operating in 2005.
FareBox Recovery Ratio (FRR) is the share of operating expenses covered by fare revenues. According to the 2020 Fiscal Plan for the Puerto Rico Highways & Transportation Authority (HTA), “Tren Urbano’s transit farebox recovery ratio is down to 4% from 17% in 2017. Meanwhile, peer systems [in the U.S.] currently have a farebox recovery ratio of 12%, while before COVID, they were closer to ~25%. Peers are expected to return to the 20-23% in the next two to three years” (2020). To achieve an FRR of 20%, Tren Urbano would need approximately 11 million riders per year which represents an increase of 350% over 2022.
Tren Urbano has three primary revenue sources to cover its operating costs:
- Fare revenues
- An annual operating grant from the Federal Transit Administration
ZAn annual appropriation from the Government of Puerto Rico. This annual appropriation is currently approximately $70 million. (If the FRR increases to 20%, this subsidy would fall to $55 million.)
HTA’s Fiscal Plan states, “The low FRR and ridership metrics are driven by Tren Urbano’s difficulty in attracting riders, which stems from several factors: technical infrastructure problems (e.g., malfunctioning point of sale machines), little integration between the train and San Juan’s other public transit systems (e.g., public buses), and riders’ tendency to use private vehicles or transportation networks (e.g., públicos).
HTA has taken steps to address the fare collection system mentioned above. A new automatic fare collection system is being implemented for Tren Urbano and the public (AMA) buses. This new system should address many of the current issues with the point-of-sale devices and the lack of fare integration among transit modes. The project is being completed in phases, with Phase 1 (primarily focused on AMA buses) scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2023.
The Future of Tren Urbano
HTA acknowledges Tren Urbano faces serious issues; as noted in the Fiscal Plan referenced above, the current transit system suffers from limited efficiency, route coordination, operational cohesiveness, and accessibility. These issues result in higher congestion and reduced mobility, particularly for low-income residents who experience long commutes or are forced to bear the costs of owning a private vehicle.
The way forward needs to be placed in the context of the current socio-economic conditions of Puerto Rico and a recent organizational change affecting the operations of Tren Urbano.
- Socio-economic Conditions
The San Juan metropolitan area is experiencing long-term population decline as shown below. The Federal Reserve Bank of New Your observed, “Although a slowdown in the island’s birthrate has contributed to this decline, a surge in the out-migration of its citizens has been a more important factor”.
San Juan Metropolitan Area Population
Source: San Juan, Puerto Rico Metro Area Population 1950-2023
The out-migration has been caused primarily by the economic retraction in Puerto Rico that began during the Great Recession and was exacerbated by Hurricanes Irma (2017), Maria (2017), and Ian (2022) and earthquakes (2022) and by a fiscal crisis which spawned the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act of 2016. Below is a graph of economic activity that shows a decline beginning in 2005 (coinciding with the commissioning of Tren Urbano).
Source: Economic Development Bank of Puerto Rico (EDB)
- Organizational Changes
Since 2016, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has been in bankruptcy and is reorganizing its debt. This process is being managed by the Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) according to the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act of 2016 (PROMESA).
As part of this reorganization, a “Plan of Adjustment” for the Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority (HTA) was approved by the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico in October 2022. This Plan of Adjustment reduces HTA’s $6.4 billion of total claims (debt, etc.) by more than 80%. It also mandates the transfer of responsibility for Tren Urbano from HTA to the Puerto Rico Integrated Transit Authority, commonly referred to as Autoridad de Transporte Integrado/ATI.
ATI was established in 2014. Under the Plan of Adjustment, ATI, which is administratively part of the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation (DTOP), now has responsibility for Tren Urbano, the Puerto Rico Metropolitan Bus Authority (or, Autoridad Metropolitana de Autobuses/AMA), and the Cataño Ferry which is a single route ferry service between Cataño and San Juan.
ATI has recently announced two initiatives that could impact the operations of Tren Urbano:
- A plan for a new express bus service that will connect Tren Urbano and the ferry terminal that services passengers traveling by ferry to the islands of Vieques and Culebra.
- ATI announced in March 2023 that it was launching a 20-month process to study the feasibility of a 2-mile extension of Tren Urbano. This extension would start at the Segrado Corazon station (which is the northern terminus of the train) to the Convention Center District. This study will “identify the most beneficial extension of Tren Urbano by developing alternatives with different modes and routes”.
Section 2: Policy Analysis Context
The team took on the challenge of identifying actions that could be taken to increase the public value generated by Tren Urbano. (Note: The definition of public value is the net value that an activity contributes to society, i.e., the social returns to the public at large.)
As a starting point, we tried to understand why ridership is significantly lower than expected, leading to large public operating subsidies. There is a consensus that certain fundamental assumptions made during the planning of Tren Urbano did not play out as hoped or expected. These include:
- The bus system was not adequately integrated concerning schedules and routes with Tren Urbano.
- Various transportation demand management strategies, such as charging for parking and transit passes for students, etc., were not put in place.
- Plans for transit-oriented development around Tren Urbano stations did not materialize.
- Plans to extend Tren Urbano to a) the Convention Center District in Santurce (and possibly into Old San Juan) and b) to the San Juan Airport were put on hold.
Our research revealed that several other factors impact the usage of Tren Urbano:
- Over the last two decades there has been significant investment in the road network. While statistics indicate road congestion, the point-to-point travel times of using a car vs. Tren Urbano are very different, with car travel being significantly faster. Note: Using Google Maps and a transit app called Moovit, we surveyed several origins and destination pairs along the Tren Urbano alignment to compare car and transit travel times. We found that using Tren Urbano and considering wait times and first mile/last mile times took more time than using cars. This travel time differential was often a factor of two or three times.
- There is a strong car culture in the San Juan metropolitan area. This is reflected in car ownership; the 1995 EIS indicates that 23% of the households in San Juan did not own a car, while the 2021 census estimated that only 3.3% of households do not own a car.
- There is a perception that Tren Urbano does not go where travelers want to go. In a Ridership Survey conducted in November 2012-January 2022, over 60% of the non-rider respondents said the reason they did not use Tren Urbano was “there are no stations near the places they frequently go”; 82% indicated they would be more likely to use the train if it connected “to other areas or municipalities”.
- The public transit system, consisting of Tren Urbano, AMA buses, and municipal trolleys, does not operate as an integrated system; schedules are not synchronized, and Tren Urbano riders cannot rely on other transit modes for the first and last mile. In the survey referenced above.
- The user experience of using Tren Urbano is not uniformly positive. While the stations and trains are clean and modern, and the train provides a comfortable trip, the amenities in and around the stations are lacking.
- Tren Urbano is not well known or understood. While riders give the train good marks, many people in San Juan have never used the train and/or have a less-than-positive opinion.
After doing secondary (literature review, review of studies, etc.) and primary (fieldwork in Puerto Rico becoming familiar with the train and meetings with stakeholders) research, the team began developing and evaluating options to increase the public benefit of Tren Urbano. (Note: One day of the field study was devoted to becoming acquainted with each Tren Urbano station and its environs. Appendix 1 summarizes the observations made.)
We identified the following possible “buckets” of value and their parts:
- Reduced Congestion= ƒ [ridership] Note: Congestion reduction is correlated with fewer car accidents and cleaner air.
- Greater Accessibility= ƒ [network efficiency]
- Travel Time Savings= ƒ [network efficiency]
- Convenience (or user experience)= ƒ [network efficiency, rider amenities]
- Increased Property Values= ƒ [ridership]
- Increased Economic Activity= ƒ [ridership] where,
- Ridership= ƒ [convenience, ticket price, network efficiency]
- Network Efficiency= ƒ [station locations, connecting (extension) routes, feeder routes, headways, frequency of service]
Section 3: Policy Alternatives
Based on our situation assessment, we generated a comprehensive set of alternatives that were organized along the following themes:
- Cultivate new customers
- Discourage car usage
- Build network efficiencies through modal integration and first/last mile services
- Enhance revenues and drive cost efficiencies
- Enhance the user experience (UX)
- Improve service (frequency, time of service, reliability)
- Introduce fare strategies (free, time of day discounts, classes of rider discounts, e.g., students, employees, tourists)
- Encourage economic/property development (housing and employment) around stations and along the Tren Urbano alignment/corridor
One obvious alternative that we decided not to consider was extending Tren Urbano by adding stations. While ATI is currently exploring this possibility as mentioned above, we believe this option is neither a good investment nor financially feasible. Concerning the former, any extension would cost, by rough estimate, over $1.5 billion. Annual ridership would need to increase by 5 million, two times the 2022 ridership, with a rider benefit of $20 per ride for the net present value of the benefits to equal costs. Concerning the latter, we went away from our meetings in Puerto Rico, hearing that given competing infrastructure priorities, it would be difficult to justify allocating hundreds of millions of dollars to Tren Urbano.
The next step was to evaluate the alternatives using our value buckets. We scored each alternative based on its value creation potential and then weighted the scores based on our situation assessment. This evaluation is shown below:
Based on the above analysis, we decided to focus on the three alternatives with the highest weight scores, i.e., alternatives 3, 6, and 8. (Note: We subsequently combined alternatives 3 and 6 given their complimentary natures, and also included alternative 5, given our belief that a positive user experience is a gating issue for all other actions.)
Each of the alternatives comprises a set of actions or recipes. These actions are summarized below.
Alternative 5: Improve the current users’ experience with better signage, real-time information, a modernized fare payment system, better station amenities, etc. Proposed actions are
- Design and post improved wayfinding (signage) inside and outside each station, including
- Better route information
- Up-to-date network maps in stations, trains, and buses
- Information in all stations about the transit network, including service times, and fares
- Signage around the Tren Urbano stations regarding bus routes, times, connections
- Provide real-time information (in the station and on the train) about arrivals and departures
- Build a reliable and integrated transit app, e.g., Transit App’s Las Vegas app
- Improve the station user experience (retail, amenities, inc. bathrooms)
- Market the benefits of transit generally and TU specifically
- Make stations and environs safer (lighting, security)
- Improve (better/safer) access for pedestrians around stations
- Build customer service into the training of Tren Urbano employees i. Improve the fare collection system (Note: As mentioned above, this action is in process.)
- Post fare information on buses and train
Alternatives 3 and 6: Enhance the level of service (i.e., not necessarily more, but better) provided by Tren Urbano. This recipe entails integrating the train more tightly with AMA buses and municipal trolleys and promoting active transportation and micro-mobility to help address the first-mile/last-mile challenge.
The actions to be taken include:
a. Build better intermodal integration/coordination
b. Improve the reliability of the bus service (per a schedule)
c. Integrate municipal shuttles with trains and buses
d. Make the stations hubs for micro-mobility (scooters, bikes)
Alternative 8: Use Tren Urbano as a “facilitator” of sustainable development along its alignment. This requires a coherent plan (with incentives) for “smart” development around the stations (including the stations themselves) to make the stations hubs of “complete” (mixed-use) communities. This development strategy is called transit-oriented development, or TOD.
While there appears to be significant TOD potential around many of the Tren Urbano stations, there is even greater potential in using Tren Urbano as the backbone of a vibrant and sustainable corridor along its eleven-mile alignment, The concept of “corridor TOD”, or C-TOD, is based on “synergies brought by transit network effects. These transit network effects provide access benefits greater than those of the sum of individual stations”.
Alternatives 3, 5, and 6: (improving the user experience and enhancing the level of service) are, for the most part, operational. They are also relatively easy and inexpensive to complete, particularly now that ATI is responsible for the bus system and Tren Urbano.
We recognize, however, that if these improvements are made, there may be only a marginal increase in ridership (given the other headwinds faced by Tren Urbano). Still, they will form a firm foundation for Alternative 8, i.e., using Tren Urbano to facilitate the achievement of other goals such as sustainable development including housing. Further, given the investment represented by Tren Urbano, the San Juan and Puerto Rico residents deserve a system that lives up to its capabilities.
The implementation of Alternative 8 is more complicated and will require greater resources. Further, it requires a change of perspective from Tren Urbano being primarily a transportation property to an asset that will allow the Government of Puerto Rico to pursue sustainable and equitable development objectives. For example, The Center for New Economy, a Puerto Rico-based policy think tank, observed in a 2022 white paper,
Considering that local access to opportunities is closely correlated with increased housing prices, increased segregation, and increased vacancy rates, it is important that post-disaster reconstruction planning can discern how to prioritize reconstruction spending. For example, given that living in high-opportunity areas in a post-disaster context becomes increasingly less tenable for low-income households, the government of Puerto Rico should prioritize locating its affordable housing construction projects financed with CDBG-DR funding in these areas. At the same time, low-opportunity areas should be given priority for infrastructure improvements, community lifelines, hazard mitigation, workforce development, and local business aid spending programs. This would substantially reduce the likelihood of vulnerable communities undergoing increased, gentrification and displacement during post-disaster reconstruction.
The map below shows by the census tracts the distribution of “opportunity” (which is a measure that incorporates income, housing, employment, and crime metrics) in the San Juan Metropolitan Area. Most of Tren Urbano’s alignment is in medium or low opportunity (yellow and orange). This suggests that Tren Urbano could be an important element in a larger strategy focused on affordable housing and economic development.
Opportunity Scores by Census Tract in the San Juan Metropolitan Area
The best example of TOD in the context of Tren Urbano is the Bayamon station which has been integrated effectively into the fabric of its surrounding community.
Another example, albeit prospective, is using the Rio Piedras station as a catalyst for the renewal of the community of Rio Piedras. The vision is captured in a high-level planning document written in 2019:
A safe, clean, walkable, mixed-income community that welcomes students, families, and people of all ages to its thriving barrios that are strongly linked to an active commercial center creating a Río Piedras that is well-connected to the larger San Juan community as a center of unique shopping, education and entertainment that celebrates and uses art based programs as a key driver of community development.
Section 4: Implementation
Improving the User Experience and Enhancing the Level of Service
We propose ATI prioritize in the short term a set of actions that will improve the Tren Urbano user experience and enhance the level of service provided to riders of Tren Urbano. These actions should have a relatively small investment requirement.
About improving user experience, actions include:
- Conducting a station-by-station “user experience” audit that focuses on signage, information, appearance, safety, and access. This audit will be the basis for a system improvement plan.
- Building a comprehensive mobile transit app that will incorporate all forms of nonvehicular transportation. This should be done in concert with the rollout with Phase 1 of the new fare collection system.
- Aggressively marketing spaces in the Tren Urbano stations to retail and commercial organizations.
- Training Tren Urbano station and train personnel in customer service delivery.
Enhancing the level of service to riders of Tren Urbano requires:
- Developing and implementing an integration plan (routes, schedules, etc.) for Tren Urbano, AMA buses, and municipal trolleys. Since the municipal trolleys are operated by the municipal governments of Bayamon, Guaynabo, and San Juan, we recommend forming a coordinating committee consisting of representatives of ATI and the three municipalities to identify areas of common interest.
- Working with micro-mobility (bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters) operators to define and implement access at each Tren Urbano station.
- Redesigning the bus connection between the Airport and the Pinero Tren Urbano station bus connection (E40) so that it is a positive example of modal integration, perhaps using the Caguas-Cupey bus connection (S30) as a model.
These actions should be accompanied by a social media plan that informs the public about improvements being made and services provided by Tren Urbano, e.g., the bus connections to the Airport and Caguas.
Use Tren Urbano as a “Facilitator” of Sustainable Development
It is our understanding that ATI, the Highway and Transit Authority, and/or DTOP own each Tren Urbano station and control much of the real estate within ¼ to ½ mile of each station. Suppose we assume ATI is the controlling entity. In that case, ATI can work in concert with the municipal governments of San Juan, Guaynabo, and Bayamon to develop and implement a transit-oriented master plan for each station.
The team acknowledges that the belief that Tren Urbano can facilitate community development is based largely on theories of transit-oriented development. To test the hypothesis, there are several planning steps we suggest ATI undertake.
- Step One: Preliminary selection of “TOD” stations. Based on the criteria of low density, available land, and “underdeveloped,” the team suggests the following:
A list
- Martinez Nadal
- Rio Piedras
- Roosevelt
- Segrado
B list
- Cupey
- Domenech
- San Francisco
- Step 2-Station Analysis
- Draw ¼ mile radius circle around each prospective station
- Conduct a land inventory to identify uses and owners and zoning
Step 3-Select stations that meet a finer tuned criterion (which is outside of the expertise of the team) and develop a C-TOD master plan
Section 5: Outcomes and Conclusion
Our expectation is that we would be able to identify a “fix” to the troubles being experienced by Tren Urbano. Our work has led us to the conclusion that there is no fix per se. There are, however, real opportunities to improve the operations of Tren Urbano for the benefit of both the transit-using public and the San Juan Metropolitan Area at large.
These benefits will not be in the form of significantly fewer cars on the road, but instead in a public asset that justifies or earns the public subsidy it receives and provides a quality service to people who do not have good transportation alternatives.
Farther down the road, Tren Urbano could be transformative for the metropolitan area if used as a development catalyst. This, however, requires a different way of thinking about transit and Tren Urbano.
Appendix 1
FIELD OBSERVATIONS
Background
As part of the practicum the students spent a week in San Juan speaking with public and private stakeholders. One day was devoted to gaining an indepth and first person experience using the train and other public transit, as well as familiarizing themselves with each of the Tren Urbano stations and environs. Below is a summary of our observations and a set of actions that could be readily taken that would enhance the service provided by Tren Urbano. Our observations are organized by station.
Observations
1. Segrado Corazon
a. Signage outside of the station is confusing.
b. Parking access is not obvious.????
2. Hato Rey
a. No place for cars (Ubers, etc) to drop off/pick up riders
3. Rooselvelt
a. Station is not conducive to pedestrians
4. Domench
a. Signage outside of the station is confusing
5. Pinero
a. Information about bus connections is lacking
b. Bus to the airport
i. No signs directing passengers to bus
ii. Service is hourly
iii. Bus stop at the airport is inconvenient
iv. No information at the airport about the bus to Pinero
6. Universidad
a. No information about student fares
7. Rio Piedras
a. No commercial (or any activity) in the area adjacent to the station
b. No signage upon exiting the station to direct travelers to tourist attractions (e.g., Paseo de Diego) or UPR
8. Cupey
a. Signage in the station is lacking
b. No commercial activity in station
c. Homeless encampment outside the station
d. The bus to Caguas was a positive experience; good signage for the E30. The First Transit app for E30 is good.
9. Centro Medico
a. No commercial activity in station
b. The area around the station feels unsafe
c. Hospitals are within a 5-minute walk tothe station
10. San Francisco
a. No commercial activity in station
b. The area around the station (south side) feels unsafe
c. Bus information is lacking
d. Directional signs outside of the station are lacking
11. Los Lomas
a. No commercial activity in the station
12. Jardines
a. Low-density residential
b. The large plaza outside of station
13. Deportivo
a. In walking distance of an active mall (Santa Rosa) with a large parking lot 14. Bayamon
a. Commercial activity at the station
b. Good connectivity with buses, but information can be improved
Actionable Items
1. Add signs inside the station to direct riders to bus connections, parking, attractions, etc. 2. Post in the stations more and better information about connecting bus routes (times, routes, etc.)
3. Develop one mobile app for all public transit and micro-mobility modes (e.g., Transit App) that includes routes, times, and locations.
4. Promote actively the rental of commercial spaces in stations
5. Conduct awareness and marketing campaigns
6. Make the stations easy to access by auto (kiss and ride), active transportation (walking and biking), and micro-mobility
7. Post more maps in stations (showing all modes)
8. Provide more accurate real-time information in the stations
9. Better mark bus stops around station
10. Make stations more pedestrian friendly
11. Integrate the train more tightly with the municipal trolleys
12. Train Tren Urbano station personnel about the transit “network”, fare interoperability, etc.
13. Redesign the bus connection between the Pinero station and the Airport so that it is convenient for passengers arriving at and leaving the Airport.
Appendix 2
FOUNDATIONAL MATERIALS
Foundational source materials used in the preparation of this document are listed below.
1. Final Environmental Impact Statement- Tren Urbano, November 1995. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102215108
2. FY 2023-2051 Fiscal Plan for the Puerto Rico Highways & Transportation Authority, October 14, 2022.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TRpSafLdOjpXLtzBqkjSPdfXpSWFfj4F/view 3. 2020 Fiscal Plan for the PRHTA Transforming PR’s Transportation System, June 26, 2020. https://www.aafaf.pr.gov/wp-content/uploads/HTA-2020-Fiscal-Plan-as-Certified by-the-Oversight-Board-June-26-2020.pdf
4. FOMB 2022 Annual Report, July 31, 2022
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e7TdoBoBI5rnHk8BGlWDGCVqNMPhn_5X/view 5. 2045 San Juan TMA Long Range Multimodal Transportation Plan, December 2018 https://act.dtop.pr.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/San-Juan-TMA_FINAL.pdf
6. Tren Urbano Title VI Requirement Survey, March 2012
https://estadisticas.pr/files/Inventario/publicaciones/ATI_2012_TU_Encuesta_T%C3%A Dtulo_VI.pdf
7. Tren Urbano Title VI Program 2018-2021
https://act.dtop.pr.gov/pdf/civilrights/personas_con_impedimentos_y_titulo_vi/AMMEN DED_TITLE_VI_PROGRAM_2018-2021_SIGNED.pdf
8. Title VI Program 2021-2023 https://act.dtop.pr.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021- 2023-Title-VI-Program-Final.pdf
9. Tren Urbano Ridership Survey: November 2021-January 2022, prepared by Francisco E. Martinez for ACI-Herzog (the contractor that operates Tren Urbano).
10. Characterization of the Publico System of Puerto Rico, Filipe Luyanda and Poduru Gandhi, Transportation Research Record, 1989.
11. Websites
• https://tutrenpr.com/
• https://trenurbanoapp
com.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc • https://mapa–metro-com.translate.goog/es/puerto-rico/san-juan/san-juan-tren-urbano mapa.htm?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
Appendix 3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This policy proposal was prepared by the following students who are master’s degree candidates in public administration and regional planning: Tiffany Vu, Surbhi Bhavsar, Jenifer Bustamante, Divine Maduakolam, Arrizka Faida, Duxixi Shen, Gina Park, Thomas McKiernan, Jasmin Higo, and Natalie Alechko.
This effort was part of the master’s degree curriculum of the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. The faculty lead was John Foote. Also participating as a co-lead was Mark Fagan, Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Questions should be directed to John Foote at jhf25@cornell.edu.
Over the semester, the students met with the following organizations and individuals to which we express our appreciation for their time, interest, and insights.
- Jake Sion-Transit App
- Zackary Mallett-Cornell University Department of City and Regional Planning • Planning Department of the Municipality of San Juan (Planificación y Ordenación Territorial
- Norma Pena Rivera-Professor of Planning at the Salvador M. Padilla Escabí Graduate School of Planning at the University of Puerto Rico
- Mayor’s Office-Municipality of Bayamon
- Carlos Pesquera-former head of the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP
- José J. Villamil-Estudios Tecnicos
- Carlos Yamil Martínez Marrero- Director of Planning and Capital Projects for the Puerto Rico Integrated Transportation Authority (ATI)
- Financial Oversight and Management Board
- Hector Colon De La Cruz, President of the Puerto Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers
- Carlos Del Valle -Senior Consultant, DVS&Asociados, LLC
- David Soto- Designer/Mobility Lead, Plusurbia Design
- Center for a New Economy
- Carlos M. Padín Bibiloni-Professor of Planning and Sustainability at Universidad Ana G Méndez
The views and positions included in this proposal are those of the students who conducted the research and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the organizations and individuals above.
Also, we want to acknowledge the financial support provided by Peter Smet MPA ’20 and the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy. Finally, this project had its beginnings in the master’s thesis written by Daniel Manichello MRP ’19 titled, “Building Ridership on the Tren Urbano: An Integrated Transit Network and Planning Future for San Juan, Puerto Rico”; we wish we had been able to share this document with Daniel who passed away in December 2022.
