Commuter Train Free on Tuesdays and Thursdays
On November 11, the Tren Urbano - commuter train - started charging a fare of ¢300 colones to passengers for a trip from Pavas to the West and San Pedro to the East, this after almost a month of free service, as the Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles (Incofer) was waiting on the fare approval by the Autoridad Reguladora de Servcision Públicos (Aresep).

The average number of riders per day is 600, though the service has capacity for 2.000, as the train operates during morning and afternoon weekday rush hours.

To boost ridership and people getting use to the train, three private companies -  television station Repretel, the Banco Nacional and Demasa -have made an agreement with Incofer to provide free service on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Incofer says that the three companies will absorb the operational costs on those days, but did not offer more details on the agreement.

During the period that the train was free of charge, 16.900 people took advantage of the service between September 10 and October 30. When Incofer began charging, use of the train dropped dramatically in the first few days, but has slowly begun to grow.

Currently, the train can carry 400 passengers per each run. In the coming weeks, Incofer intends to add a second train that will carry 300 passengers.

Incofer has also been working on improving the train stops, including building new ones like the stop at La Sabana. Infocer president, Miguel Carabaguíaz, recognized that they have fallen behind on the train stops in between the station points, but that will be history in a short time.