Caracas Chronicles

The central government has some good news for the people of Valencia: At the end of this month, the first two stations of the subway’s Line 2 will finally be opened. Víctor Moreno, chairman of C.A. Metro de Valencia announced this to State news agency AVN during an inspection:

“At the end of this month, we will start operations on these two stations, and we estimate that in two months time, both will be 100% ready. We’re going operational. We don’t have to delay the operations further so Valencianos can use their stations. Security is guaranteed.”

Not that the subway’s chairman admitted that the delays were long though. I mean, FOUR. YEARS. LONG. And to compensate, they’re going to open the stations with 30% of the work incomplete (according to the official version of the story, there’s only less than 10% left to do).

The Valencia Metro system has a long history of delays and certainly the opening of the second line will be a relief in more ways than one: With the end of the construction work in sight, the north side of Bolivar Avenue (one of the main roads in the city) will see the lifting of limited access for vehicles, a welcome reprieve for the stores of the area.

But the head of the local commerce chamber Gustavo Sosa Izaguirre is quite skeptical of the news, and he shared his concern with El Carabobeño’s Darryl Blanco. He says that the fall in sales caused by both the construction work and the current economic slump won’t be solved with the upcoming inauguration. He also accused authorities of leaving them out of recent consultations and inspections.

But Valencia isn’t exclusive to underground problems: Caracas Metro’s Line One just went through “modernization” works in the last few days (which will go on later this year). However, there were some major delays in the service. Could the troubles with Odebrecht have something to do with this? Who really knows…