It is one of the longest subway lines in the network, the most central in the City and the one that crosses two of its densest communes.
But, also, the one that accuses
more problems in the last months.
Constant delays and full cars plague B
users ,
who also face the dilemma of choosing between newer formations with poor ventilation, or older formations with open windows.
“For a couple of months line B has been listed
'with delays'
or 'with delays due to union strength.'
In any case, the frequency of three minutes
that Larreta talked about so much
is not being met .
Now it's five or six minutes at rush hour.
Sometimes ten”, laments Ezequiel Cohen (35), who travels every day at 8
from Villa Crespo to San Telmo.
Ezequiel is not exaggerating: the same information from the Emova dealership proves him right.
For the sample, the official records of the past month are valid, even if the problem is earlier.
Of the 28 days that February has, on 15 there were delays
on the line (up to three in a single day).
In turn, the service was limited on four different days (February 1, 13, 20 and 21) and was directly
interrupted on the first and 14th of the month.
Delays last anywhere
from 20 minutes to eight hours straight.
The most difficult day in February was Thursday the 23rd, when the service suffered delays between 7:37 and 10:40 and, later, between 14:58 and 22:05.
The other two most complicated days were the previous and the following (22 and 24), with delays of three hours in the morning and more than five in the afternoon on both dates.
Delays and complaints on the B subway, the line that transports the most passengers and is furthest behind in terms of trains.
Photo: Luciano Thieberger
In these cases, the concessionaire accused
union force measures.
The Subway and Premetro Workers Union Association (AGTSyP), better known as Metrodelegados, responded via stickers posted at stations:
“There is no union conflict
.
Emova is responsible for the lack of trains”.
What SBASE, Emova and the union say
From Subterráneos Buenos Aires (SBASE), the state company that manages the network, they report that the delays suffered by line B so far in 2023 are due to "
technical causes, passengers who require medical attention
and, in some cases, measures union strength."
Emova, on the other hand, did not issue a response on that particular point.
“There is no union conflict.
The delays have to do with the lack of good trains.
We would have to have at least 25 authorized to go out and there are days that
we provide service with 15, 12 or even 8.
Both the Mitsubishi fleet and the CAF 6000 fleet are contaminated with asbestos and lack preventive maintenance”, highlights Claudio Dellecarbonara, member of the Executive Secretariat of the AGTSyP.
The Metrodelegates posted stickers at the stations in reference to the delays.
In Emova, on the other hand, they maintain that the formations "are not out of service due to asbestos", but rather
"go out of service due to some need for maintenance"
.
"When it involves working with a work protocol with exposure to asbestos, its execution slows down and thus there is more time out of service," says a company spokesperson.
From the concessionaire they also point out that, once the components with
asbestos
were identified , a de-asbestos plan was prepared, which "is being carried out".
In SBASE they give more details: they affirm that the de-animalization in the Mitsubishi fleet
(from the end of the fifties) has
been completed and they are advancing with the CAF 6000 (from the end of the nineties).
"Except for the formation that is being intervened,
there are no trains out of service due to asbestos
," they point out.
On the contrary, the Metrodelegates affirm that the Mitsubishi cannot stop de-bestosing “because their chassis are completely covered in asbestos paint”, says Dellecarbonara.
“If they were to de-bestise, there would be a risk of disseminating all the fibers in the environment.
The only thing that can be done on them is to remove them from service and replace them with new ones, ”he adds.
Delays and complaints on the B subway, the line that transports the most passengers and is furthest behind in terms of trains.
Photo: Luciano Thieberger
SBASE plans to replace the 64-year-old Mitsubishi with
the purchase of 16 formations of six cars each
.
For this, it carried out a data-room process, a meeting in which experts and manufacturers of rolling stock participated.
However, the public consultation prior to the acquisition has been extended and the launch of the tender
has not yet been set.
Red line B, heat and anger
Red is the color that characterizes the line.
Red is also the alert that should be issued due to its high temperatures: in addition to the absence of fans in less central stations -such as Echeverría, the second deepest in the entire network- there are formations whose ventilation falls short
.
Meanwhile, users are red with anger.
“It's already been at least seven times that I have to get off the 'new' subways because supposedly they have air conditioning but they
don't turn it on or it doesn't work well.
I start to sweat as if I had low blood pressure - graphic Amanda Santos (38), who joins Villa Urquiza with Balvanera daily -.
The doors open and I feel like I'm breathing because outside air is coming in."
It is that
the only formations with air conditioning are the CAF 6000,
but the system does not work properly in all that fleet and, worse, the windows are hermetically closed.
Thus,
fans are commonplace
and there are those who choose to travel in cars without air conditioning but with open windows.
Consulted by this newspaper, the Emova spokesman maintains that "no major inconveniences have been reported, except for some isolated cases."
The reason invoked: "
The greater demand to which the teams are subjected
due to the high and unusual temperatures of recent weeks", continues the same source.
From SBASE, meanwhile, they ensure that most of the failures in the air conditioning are "specific incidents that are resolved immediately by resetting the system."
"In other cases, training is intervened to do the corresponding maintenance," continues the same source.
However, both the record of this chronicler and the testimonies collected and the publications on social networks add up to so many isolated cases to form a frequent pattern.
“This is from months ago.
When it's not hot it also happens,"
denounces Victoria Sanjuan (45), a neighbor of Almagro.
Problems on line B were never new, but they do occur even at night, in summer, and include ventilation failures.
The endorsement of responsibilities between the parties seems endless.
Meanwhile, the subway has not yet recovered the pre-pandemic level of passengers.
Everything would indicate that those who choose it should be taken care of, that in the case of B, the busiest, there are about
120,000 every day.
SC
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