Transport expert slams former president’s “narcissism” with subway

Santo Domingo.- The revolutionary and prominent engineer Hamlet Hermann on Monday called president Danilo Medina’s and Presidency chief of staff Gustavo Montalvo’s decision to alt the work on the Metro’s (subway) second line, courageous, because "they got rid of their pacifier" to curb (former president) Leonel Fernandez’s “madness.”

The former head of the Metropolitan Transit Authority during Fernandez’s first term in office said the work reveals the former president’s narcissism and abuse of the Dominican people. "I call it (the Metro) María Antoinette’s (French empress) wanting a diamond necklace. That’s when the people of France were dying of hunger. Marie-Antoinette wanted a diamond necklace, and that’s what happens with the Metro."

Interviewed by Huchi Lora on El Dia Channel 11, Hermann said the subway hasn’t solved the capital’s mass transit problem, and has cost US$1.5 billion to serve a mere 60,000 commutes daily. "Has transport improved? Can someone say for sure that transport has improved from 2005 to now? Of course not! Every day is worse! "

"Project of lies”

Hermann called the Metro a project of lies and corruption because it doesn’t publish any information, despite being an automatic system, where riders “swipe a card" that tallies the number of commuters, the time and the station. “There’s no justification not to publish the number of passengers daily, that should be in a web site."