Metro  Line 2 is 65% completed and will be “partially operational” when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims arrive in the city for World Youth Day, in January 2019 but will not solve the city’s traffic and transport problems.

The Line 2 Consortium -Odebrecht y Fomento Construcciones y Contractors- told La Prensa that at the end of this year they hope to carry out the first static and dynamic train tests that will initially carry 16,000  people during peak hours.

They also committed themselves to having the line partially working during the World  Youth Day with the project fully operational in May of next year.

The $1,857 billion project  will extend   over 21 kilometers, from the San Miguelito Metro Station  to Nuevo Tocumen, in the December 24  corregimiento

Integration
Gustavo Adolfo Bernal, president of the Panamanian Society of Engineers and Architects (SPIA), rated the project positive but considered that by itself it will not help to remedy the traffic problems for vehicles and mobilization of public transport users.

He said that many resources are being invested in the improvement of roads and new transport systems, but there is a lack of connectivity between the works that they advance.

"We have to think big to integrate the investments that are being made, in such a way that there is an effective optimization of the service. It's not just about building things, " he said