THE VISIT by Pope Francis to Panama in 2019 for the Catholic Youth  World  Assembly will accelerate the construction of line 2 of the Metro and the extension to Tocumen International Airport.

The news came from Metro Chairman Roberto Roy on Tuesday September 13 during a presentation to the National Assembly on the agency's 2017 budget.

But Roy did not offer any clues to the additional price tag involved in the speed up work on the projects.

When the selection of Panama as the site of the event was first announced, enthusiasts talked of visitors arriving by the million.

That was scaled back to around 400,000.

But traffic watchers, pointed out that some 150,000 additional vehicles will appear on Panama’s streets by mid-2019 and the current public transit system would not be able to cope with a sudden major influx of visitors.

Hotels will have less of a problem as apart from the dignateries, the mass of youth visitors are billeted in private homes.

President Juan Carlos Varela and First Lady Lorena Castillo, who attended the last youth event in Krakow, Poland, were enthusiastic proponents of the visit.

More resources
"Metro line 2 has to be fully ready by Dec. 31, 2018," Roy  told legislators. "That accelerates the project which was originally supposed to be completed by April of 2019. This requires additional resources."

He did not specify how much accelerating the completion date would cost.

During his presentation Roy also said that authorities are working on integrating a single fare for riders using the Metro and the Metro Bus.