By Ana Maria Ruiz-Brown and Kelly Simmons
AUTOMATIC STICKER COULD BE USED ON BRIDGES
Through a new program called Automatic Vehicle Identification (Identificación Automática Vehicular, IAVE) the Mexican Agency for Federal Highways and International Crossings (Caminos y Puentes Federales, CAPUFE) is undertaking an effort to improve traffic flow on toll highways through a new payment system. The new system consists of a sticker displayed on the windshield of cars that is read automatically as the vehicle passes by, vastly improving efficiency. Drivers no longer need to carry change and do not need to stop. The system has been in place for one year throughout the country on toll highways and is in use at 70 toll booths. 30,000 stickers have been issued to nearly 700, mostly transportation, companies. The system has been such a success that businesses and officials in Juarez have proposed that it be implemented at the international crossings to reduce the time spent waiting to pay crossing fees. According to a CAPUFE official, one transportaion company in El Paso has been using the sticker system. The system is also hailed as a means for detecting stolen vehicles.
U.S.-MEXICAN CONSORTIUM BUYS MEXICAN RAIL LINE
A consortium of Transportacíon Marítima Mexicana and Kansas City Southern Industries (TMM-KCSI) have announced plans to buy Mexico's Noreste Railway (Ferrocarril del Noreste) for $560 million and to invest a total of $800 million in the railroad, including modernization and the purchase of new equipment as well as repairs. The newly refurbished railway will have major connections between the northern border states in the eastern section of the country such as Monterrey, Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo and cities along the western Pacific coast such as Saltillo, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Aguascalientes, and Guadalajara. On the U.S. side, the railway will connect up with a railway network of KCSI's at Beaumont, Texas and railway lines of the Union Pacific.
BUS TICKET PRICE INCREASES IN JUAREZ
Along with the price of many other service and commodities in Mexico, the price for a city bus ticket was recently raised 20 percent in Ciudad Juarez, from $1.50 pesos to $1.80 pesos for a regular fare. Student prices were increased from $1.00 peso to $1.20 pesos. Both drivers and passengers reacted negatively to the news; bus drivers because the fare was not high enough and passengers because the price is too high, given the rise in other prices throughout the city. Critics have complained that the $1.80 price is really an increase to $2.00 pesos since drivers do not carry change. Students also complained that the new ticket price does not correspond to the agreement established twelve years ago in which the price was to be only 50% of the regular fare. After a series of meetings and talks with bus companies, state government and representatives of workers organizations, a new token system was agreed upon, that solved the problem of drivers carrying change.
Sources: Diario de Juarez, El Norte, Reforma