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The difficult economic situation of the city’s Integrated Mass Transportation System – Transcaribe – is no secret to anyone, so it could be paralyzed at any time, as admitted by its manager, Sindry Camargo, in recent days before the Council District, where the SITM was discussed.
Read here: Manager of Transcaribe admits that the system is at risk of paralysis
That left not only the users of this transport system concerned but also the drivers, who through a symbolic protest, with posters on the buses, asked the mayor not to let the system die, this after knowing that William Dau, did not agree to make the loan of some 43 billion to Findeter to solve the critical financial situation that Transcaribe is going through.
Read here: Mayor says why he has not requested a loan for Transcaribe
And as if that were not enough, Dataprom, the software and technology provider firm in charge of the collection of Transcaribe and a member of the Colcard Consortium, through a press release indicated that from today, March 20, at midnight, they will not provide plus the service of recharging users at external points that the system has, the website or at the stations, which means that the user who did not recharge their full card, will not be able to get on this means of transport.
The reasons
“The decision was made due to the repeated and systematic breaches of Transcaribe and the enormous debts of that entity with the Consortium, which worsened in the midst of the pandemic. Despite the fact that Dataprom had been warning Transcaribe about the imminence of the collapse for 8 months, the entity did not take the necessary measures to prevent it, ”the statement explained.
Let us remember that the electronic collection system is vital so that this transport service can continue its operation, because through this it is that users can buy their tickets and access the Integrated System of Mass Transportation without setbacks, thus increasing the purchasing power of the SITM.
“Dataprom was forced to suspend its service due to the very serious and repeated breaches of Transcaribe, which have not allowed Cartagena’s integrated mass transportation system to achieve economic balance. This situation was aggravated by the health emergency of COVID-19, which caused a huge reduction in the demand for transport that has fallen to 95%. The situation is so serious that the Colcard Consortium is not even receiving the necessary income to pay the minimum operating costs, due to the breaches of Transcaribe.
This alarming situation was brought to the attention of Transcaribe, since August last year, by Dataprom, as a supplier and member of the Colcard Consortium. He did it insistently, and repeatedly, but Transcaribe has not been able to offer a solution and there is no foresee that it can do so in the near future, ”the statement reads.
Read here: Symbolic protest on buses: “Mayor, don’t let Transcaribe die”
With this decision, the financial income of Transcaribe will be further affected and it will also mean that “the entire web management and control system will not be available; the chargers in stations will stop operating and the User Service Center (CAU) will be inoperative. Transcaribe will not be able to dispatch and control buses because the Fleet Control System will be inactive. If Transcaribe sends the buses to the street, the operators and users will not have information about them. People who do not have a balance on their card will not be able to access the system and Transcaribe will not have any information on users who keep credit on their card and access the SITM ”.
In the statement, the company assures that during 2020, “the Colcard Consortium received only 32% of the projected income, coupled with repeated non-compliances, as it is barely understandable, it does not allow Dataprom (as supplier and technical operator of the Colcard Consortium ) continue to provide the Transcaribe collection service, the operation of vehicle routes and the control of entry to vehicles, articulated vehicles and stations, through the use of cards and validators, in addition to other operations ”.
Dataprom assures that they have been complying with all their obligations under the Concession Contract, but they have been forced to bear financial burdens that do not legally correspond to them and they have faced a situation that is already unsustainable.
Read here: National government, the only option to save Transcaribe
Given this, they explain in the statement that “it has made efforts to which it is not legally obliged, exclusively with the purpose that the system can continue to operate and think about the citizens of Cartagena, despite the defaults and the large debts that have been accumulating. by Transcaribe.
Users will also not have information about the buses. // Julio Castaño – El Universal
Being submerged in this deep crisis, on August 31, 2020, Dataprom informed Transcaribe that it was impossible for it to continue complying with the obligations established in the Concession Contract and asked it the right thing: to comply with its obligations and to adopt the necessary measures to make the system viable ”.
Everything indicates that Dataprom made many efforts to avoid reaching this decision to suspend the collection, however they explain that “Transcaribe’s offer consisted of working quickly to achieve a solution that would make the Concession Contract viable. The October dialogues did not materialize and the timetable for the working groups, proposed by Transcaribe to have a definition in the first days of February, not only was not fulfilled, but to date there is also no glimpse of a satisfactory and viable solution in the immediate future.
Additionally, this week a very worrying and surprising fact was revealed: that critical information raised by Transcaribe, in the development of the working groups as a possible instrument to resolve the serious situation of the integrated mass transport system of the city of Cartagena, such as This is the case of a loan with Findeter, it did not correspond to reality ”.
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