On a press conference this morning, minister of the interior and transportation Florencio Randazzo announced a series of changes that will be introduced to the use of SUBE, the card used to pay for subte, bus, and train fares in Buenos Aires.

Randazzo explained that from today onwards, once the SUBE card runs out of credit, $7.50 will be automatically credited. This amount will be then discounted when the user tops up their card’s credit. He reiterated that the use of the SUBE card is still necessary to receive subsidised fares on buses. For those who choose to pay with coins, the minimum bus fare is $2, whilst the SUBE subsidised fare remains at $1.10.

The minister also announced that the card can be purchased online, on the SUBE website. It has a cost of $15, plus a $10 postage fee. According to the information on the website, the card is delivered within 10 working days. Foreigners can obtain their SUBE card by showing their passport and completing the relevant forms at any authorised distribution centre.

Minister of Interior and Transportation, Florencio Randazzo, announced a $633 million improvement plan for the Mitre train line. The plan includes workshop maintenance, rolling stock improvement and track renovation in Tigre, José León Suárez and Mitre. A bid for signage improvement is expected to be made soon.

“This is going to improve the frecuency and comfort of the service,” Randazzo said.

Work will start next Wednesday on the tracks at Hipódromo and Carranza in Palermo. Randazzo assures commuters that the plan’s first stage will not affect services on the line, as work will be done from 23:15 until 4 a.m..

He also said that the Mitre’s emergency program will be announced within a week.

Randazzo asked for the collaboration of employes and users in the upcoming improvements.

The improvement plan announcement comes a few weeks after Randazzo revealed a $800 million improvement plan on the Sarmiento train line.

One month after the train crash in Once that claimed 51 lives and injured more than 700 people, relatives and commuters gathered to demonstrate at the precise time of the accident, between 8:30 and 8:32.

The protest was organised to fuel national clamour toward demands for justice and answers in the wake of last month’s disaster.

“The idea is that the sound will keep awake the need for justice and to find those responsible,” said Paolo Menghini, who lost his son last month, in an interview with Radio La Red.

Between 8:30 and 8:32 this morning, protesters banged pans, blew whistles, and honked horns to honour the dead and maintain vigilance in their push for justice.

So far, however, very little has been done officially to address responsibility and rectify the problem. Apart from the resignation of former transport secretary Juan Pablo Schiavo and an ongoing investigation into the accounts of Trenes de Buenos Aires (TBA), justice has not been sufficiently met for victims and their families.

“We hope citizens will join us with the only flag, as always, of the order of justice and without political, union, or social identifications,” Menghini continued.

Since the accident, with trains under management by the government, commuters on the same route from Moreno to Once have seen the service deteriorate as travel time has increased. Some feel things have gotten worse.

“Few trains, fewer frequencies. We travel like animals. Look what this is,” one passenger told Clarín.

Meanwhile, as Judge Claudio Bonadio’s investigation into the TBA continues, another former transport secretary, Ricardo Jaime, denies responsibility for the accident.

“I have no share of responsibility. I’m not an official,” Jaime said on TV show Caiga quien Caiga. “Justice will say what and who produced this situation.”

Jaime was transport secretary from 2003 to 2009, at which time he resigned under pressure for numerous allegations of corruption. Jaime is now under scrutiny for accepting bribes from companies involved in the train service and other instances of unjust enrichment.

The crux of the investigation surrounds the expenditure of funds designated for railway investment and how their misuse allowed the system to produce such a fatal accident.

The federal government has extended its intervention of the train system for 15 more days, awaiting the completion of an inquiry into the crash at Once station.

On 28th February, the government announced that there would be a technical and operational “intervention” of Buenos Aires Trains (TBA) until today.

Signed by Planning Minister Julio De Vido, the new measure was announced in an official bulletin and gives the government control for 15 extra days “in order to ensure continuity and regularity of public service and ensure the safety of users” of the Mitre and Sarmiento railway lines.

The initial measure came days after the tragic train crash at Once Station, which killed 51 people and injured more than 700.

The privately company TBA runs various train services in Buenos Aires, and is under intense scrutiny for its role in the crash. On 9th March, Federal Judge Claudio Bonadío – heading the inquiry into the crash – ordered an investigation into TBA’s finances. On 5th March, TBA bosses were also in the list of people restricted from leaving the country by Bonadío.

The intervention extension comes just after the mother of one of the victims asked yesterday that those responsible be charged with manslaughter.

Francisca Centurión, whose son Randulfo González Centurión was killed in the crash, asked the judge working on the case to prosecute those responsible.

“This was not a fluke; this was a criminal act,” she said in a letter, according to Tucumán’s La Gaceta.

This morning, at just after 8am, a school bus collided with a provincial train in the Buenos Aires province of Campana.

Although there are no life-threatening injuries, seven children and three teachers have been reported as hurt, and were taken to a local hospital following the accident.

The accident occurred while the train, travelling in the direction of Rosario, was metres away from the Rómulo Otamendi station. The train was travelling at a slow speed when the bus collided with it. It has been reported that after the collision, the bus remained parallel, while the train “dragged” it.

Minister for Health for the Province of Buenos Aires, Alejandro Collia spoke to Canal C5N saying “The bus was carrying more children than it could move.” Arnedo Acciardi, the coordinator of Civil Defence in Campana, suggested that the crash happened due to a “fault on behalf of the bus.”

An investigation has been launched into the causes of the accident.

It’s Friday again!

And what a fucked up week it’s been for Argentina.

So this week’s column is going to be rather grim, because that’s just the way it is.

You have probably heard all about it by now, but just in case you don’t give a damn, which trust me, is possible, here’s what you need to know about the latest tragic train accident:

• 

  This photo illustrates what TBA considers should be an "acceptable" service. Fuck them. (Photo/Beatrice Murch)

  At 8:32 AM on Wednesday, a train from the Sarmiento line entering the Once railway station failed to break as it reached the platform and hit the track bumper at 20 km/hour, leaving 51 people dead and over 700 people injured (click here for footage from the security cameras at the moment of the crash). After such a strong impact, the second car was plunged “about six meters into the first,” which is where most of the victims were found. In case you haven’t noticed, most commuters usually enter the first car in order to get off first and save time, so you can imagine how packed it gets in there during rush hour. Most of the people inside the first car were killed instantly.

• Even though the reasons for the accident remain unknown and forensic authorities have begun analyzing every aspect of it in order to figure out what went wrong, the tragedy has once again sparked a long-standing debate about the poor state of the trains that millions of people take every day to go to work. However, a representative from Trenes de Buenos Aires (TBA, the company running the train system) showed up at the station to defend the service saying that he considers it to be “acceptable.” Yeah, that’s right. This is “acceptable” to him. Or this. Or this. I shiver to think what it is he would consider “bad” service. Fucker.

• A few hours after the accident, Transportation Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi gave an unfortunate press conference, which he opened by saying that accidents like this happen all over the world (“so don’t blame us!” *hint, hint*) and then said that had this happened on Tuesday, which was a holiday, the tragedy would have been a lot less serious. In response to what you’re probably wondering: no, he has not resigned nor has he been fired.

• President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner issued a statement, saying she was deeply saddened by the tragedy and announced two days of national mourning. Then no one has any idea what happened to her but she’s been MIA ever since.

• She also cancelled carnival celebrations, which were scheduled to take place this weekend on 9 de Julio Av. This kind of makes sense since I don’t think shaking your naked ass on a float in front of thousands of people on a day of national mourning is a great idea.

• As the death toll and the amount of injured passengers continued to rise, the international media got ahold of the news and heads of state from all over the world began sending their messages of support to the Argentine population. Mexico, Chile, the United States and Spain were some of the first nations to send their condolences in light of this tragic incident. But imagine the population’s surprise when suddenly the United Kingdom, whose relationship with Argentina has been more than tense in the last few months due to the Malvinas/Falklands controversy, was among the first to say that “their thoughts were with the families of the victims and with the emergency services still trying to help those involved.” See, people? This is what true diplomacy is all about. Sure, both countries may sound like they are about to kill each other, but in the face of tragedy, you leave your differences aside and you help whoever is in need. Had this happened in the UK, would you have had a similar attitude (I’m talking to you, Argentines)? If your answer was “I would have said they deserved it for stealing our islands,” then let me just say you, my friend, are an idiot.

• Speaking of the Malvinas/Falklands, a group of Argentine journalists, philosophers and other hard-to-pinpoint professions sent an open letter to the media in which they said that they had had it with all this bullshit and surprisingly had decided to side with the islanders and their right to self-determination. Can you imagine? Traitors! So the President charged them with heresy and ordered to have them burned at the stake, to which the populace hastily complied.

• Ha! No, of course they were not burned. But everyone pretty much told them to go fuck themselves. Here’s the letter in case you want to read it in Spanish, even though I know you couldn’t care less.

• Mark your calendars: the National Day against Mining Exploitation is coming. And no, this is not another holiday that the Government just pulled out of its ass. Apparently it’s gonna be this nation-wide protest against mining activities in the north-western provinces. You’re disappointed, aren’t you? You thought this was going to be another day off, didn’t you? Well it’s not. Deal with it.

• Prestigious London-based magazine “The Economist” has had it with the local Government trying to sugarcoat inflation and announced it would stop using Argentina’s official inflation statistics. In other non-related news, I also expect them to announce soon that Darth Vader is Luke’s father, Mili Vanilli were really lip-synching all along and Bruce Willis is dead.

• In another heavy blow to the cruise industry (which is already in hot water after the Costa Concordia fuck up incident), a waitress working in the MSC Armonia died of Influenzavirus B after being hospitalized in critical condition in Santos, Brazil. Several people in the cruise, which arrived in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, started showing similar symptoms and everyone started freaking out, but then the local Government said there was no threat so everyone decided to overcome the tragic death of the waitress by going shopping in Palermo Soho. See? And they didn’t even need Dr. House for this one.

• Did you click on that “Influenzavirus B” link? You didn’t, did you? That’s OK, it’s not like you would have understood a single word of it. Let’s just call it a really bad flu, period.

• Socialite, philanthropist, Argentina’s wealthiest person in the entire
  

  No one you know. (Photo/Wikipedia)

  universe and old person Amelia “Amelita” Fortabat passed away last weekend at the age of 90 (not that you care since you never heard of her). However, she was a prominent figure who inspired Andy Warhol to paint a portrait of her. And that makes her a thousand times cooler than you (unless you’re Marilyn Monroe) and worthy of being mentioned on this column.

• And finally: here’s a video that has been making the rounds on Facebook and Twitter, that at first makes you laugh and a few minutes later it keeps resonating in the echo chamber of your brain until you come to understand that there is really nothing funny about it. Maybe it’s the decadent state of that centuries-old, unusable blackboard in some God-forsaken school in Catamarca. Maybe it’s the finger-painted wall, collecting digital signatures since who knows how many years back, displaying signs of neglect. Maybe it’s the teacher’s attempt to conceal the fact that she just doesn’t know how to multiply while her students blatantly laugh at her ignorance. But mostly, I’m sure it’s the realization that this is the standard of education we’re offering future generations. Children who in a few years will be in charge of keeping society afloat while we hope to live with whatever shitty pension we’re entitled to. So yeah, that’s right. We’re fucked.

• Also, in her defense, I don’t think I’ve multiplied anything without a calculator since 1997, so I’m sure I wouldn’t know how to do it either. Give her a break.

Have a great weekend everyone!

The Argentine government released an ad campaign informing that after 10 February bus passengers who do not pay for their tickets with a SUBE card will not get subsidised. Official authorities have not yet disclosed the price of bus and train tickets without the subsidy.

“From 10 February on, if you want to travel by train or bus in the metropolitan area and you do not have a SUBE card, you are going to miss on the subsidy and your ticket will be more expensive,” says an official advertisement from Casa Rosada.

“But if you have your SUBE card, you are going to pay the same you are paying today.” The advert also warns passengers: “For a while now we have been telling you to get your SUBE card. If you have not done it, do it now.”

The announcement has already caused long queues in both train and bus stations to get the card today.
Fernando Blanco Muiño, president of the Argentine Consumers Union (UCA), said the implementation of the SUBE cards in public transportation is developing in an “unorganised and uninformed” way.

Muiño also claimed that an increase in bus and train tickets is “almost certain”.

Jessie Akin shows a day in the life of Folkhop, a band who busk for money on the trains through the suburbs of Buenos Aires. Folkhop is made up of two folk muscians – Francisco from Salta and Alejandro from Jujuy – and rapper Israel from Buenos Aires. Their music combines Argentine folk rhythms such as chacarera and samba with hip hop and the fusion of Buenos Aires’ street culture and folklore is also expressed through their lyrics. Both Francisco and Alejandro have been playing folk music for many years both in their native provinces and around Buenos Aires, and Israel has been rapping since he was 12 years old. The band, which can be heard every day on the Retiro-Tigre train, was formed two years ago, and they are currently recording a new album.

If the fare machine is not working, the passengers will travel free.

According to Resolution 811 published yesterday in the official bulletin of the National Commission of the Regulation of Transportation, anyone travelling by city bus, train or subway will not be charged if the SUBE machine is not functioning.

The measure was taken after city residents complained about the inconvenience of waiting for buses only to find that they couldn’t get on them because they didn’t have coins.

A bus carrying school children and teachers was hit yesterday by a freight train at a level crossing in the province of San Luis, killing at least eight people and injuring over thirty. Two more remain in critical condition in hospital.

The incident happened at noon on provincial route 3, near the town of Zanajitas, some 60km south of the city of San Luis. Its cause is still unknown but experts are investigating whether some technical fault within the bus caused the driver to stop in the middle of the crossing. The driver is being treated in hospital but remains in police custody.

“It was a tremendous blow, I could not believe it” Daniel Perez, a priest travelling in a vehicle in front of the bus, told Clarín. “We went down and started to help the people and the kids as best we could.”

The bus was hit by a freight train pulling 44 cars loaded with cargo such as cement, lime and coal. It then travelled some 150m before coming to a stop on its side.

This is the latest in an ongoing saga of bus and train collisions. On 13^th September 11 bus passengers were killed when a train from Sarmiento crashed into a bus on line 92 in Flores.