The university train, with little movement and centrally located in the Waldbahnhof/g. calvelo
The university train, which connects stations 1 and 44 with the Ringstrasse as well as stations 25 and 72, today presents a situation that is in stark contrast to the official enthusiasm in the days of its introduction in 2013. The formation, which has 70 seats, travels on average with a quarter of these seats.
The initiative was presented with the aim of enabling rail transport with lower costs and shorter journey times, circumstances that in practice do not seem to be taken into account when choosing a means of transport. Especially those outside the university community who seem to be in the minority in the passage dominated by young people with backpacks and notebooks getting off at the Bosque stations.
Its function has an axis that is clearly visible in every game: to be the link for students from the Conurbano who arrive via the Roca line. When they get off the grid, they speed up and get on the “little train.”
The service has a single fare of 224 pesos, both for the 7 kilometer route and for the exit at 500 meters in architecture.
To a lesser extent, it also transports residents to El Mondongo, Villa Elvira or Altos de San Lorenzo and the San Martín Hospital. The daily postcard shows a clear pattern: most passengers take them to go to school.
The train arrives at the 72nd Avenue station with a handful of passengers and “on the way back it brings less than it carries,” describe daily commuters.
The occupancy data is consistent and reflects the separation of service from life outside the forest. This newspaper has been able to confirm in recent days that the service departed at 7:17 a.m. with about 30 passengers, most of whom disembarked in the IT and medical sectors. At that time the 10:54 service had around 15 passengers, of which only two reached the end of the route at 25 and 72.
The number rose to 30 passengers in the early afternoon but fell back to about a dozen by late afternoon.
Only half a dozen people got in at the last service at 9:26 p.m.
This means that the average capacity utilization on a working day would not reach 20 seats per train.
Service workers point out that the low occupancy these days is due to the end of classes, as opposed to class times when people are stationary.
However, even during more favorable times for ticket reductions, demand is concentrated on some of the train station services in the early morning and afternoon.
According to a report by Trenes Argentinos, a total of 86,543 passengers were counted from January to November this year.
The monthly distribution shows an extreme sensitivity to the university calendar: while peaks were recorded in February and April (14,445 and 15,264 passengers respectively), usage falls in months with lower activity such as January (3,140), July (6,041) and the significant decrease in September (555) and August (2,839). This confirms that in more than a decade the railway has failed to become an everyday and stable option for the rest of the residents.
Staffing
Faced with this panorama of low demand, the authorities of the National University of La Plata continue to bet: they give the impetus to management at the national level to continue adding stops.
The nine daily connections from Monday to Friday and the seven on Saturday are operated with a Swiss small train from 1948.
This training requires a large number of personnel, which in night traffic almost corresponds to the number of passengers.
The team includes the driver, the driver assistant, the security guard, the security staff and the supervisor. In addition, there are the two traffic stoppers or “Banderilleros”, which are essential to stop traffic with flags – without barriers, traffic lights and horns – and to reduce traffic risks, which have unfortunately already led to two vehicle accidents in recent years.
What is scarce, however, are the details when it comes to knowing exactly what revenue UNLP generates from many of its services, and the University Train is no exception. As has been repeatedly emphasized, it is also not clear where the funds generated by this service go.
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