Collaborating Agencies
ABOUT
Make this your own. Click here to add the content you want.
TEAM
Make this your own. Click here to add the content you want.
PROJECTS
Make this your own. Click here to add the content you want.
CONTACT US
Make this your own. Click here to add the content you want.
AWARDS
Make this your own. Click here to add the content you want.
CLIENTS
Make this your own. Click here to add the content you want.
Tren Urbano
Tren Urbano (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
The Puerto Rico Integrated Transportation Authority (PRITA) or Autori-dad de Tránsporte Integrado (ATI), serves the San Juan Urbanized Area through heavy rail and bus public transportation. The Tren Urbano (English: Urban Train) is a 10.7-mile (17.2 km) fully automated rapid transit system that serves the municipalities of San Juan, Guaynabo and Bayamón in Puerto Rico. The Tren Urbano consists of 16 stations operating on 10.7 miles (17.2 km) of track along a single line. Tren Urbano is the Caribbean's first rapid transit system.
The MIT Transit Lab consulted on the Tren Urbano project as part of a nine year partnership with the Puerto Rico transportation Authority. MIT students and staff worked with local students at the University of Puerto Rico to study and advise on the design, operation and scheduling of the Tren Urbano rail system. This project was the first formal research partnership between the MIT Transit Lab and a transit agency, and formed the basis for future partnerships with the CTA, MBTA, TFL and MTR.
Featured Projects
Developing High-density Housing near Tren Urbano Stations: Financial Feasibility for Transit Supportive Condominiums
The confluence of rail transit and real estate development opportunities in San Juan, Puerto Rico raises a number of questions related to the future built form of the city and surrounding region. As the construction of Tren Urbano nears completion many advocate transit supportive development that captures the social benefits that results for public investment in Tren Urbano. Private developers have been slow to react to the potential for transit supportive real housing.
Analysis of Real-Time Operations Control Strategies for Tren Urbano
Since Tren Urbano is the first privately contracted rail system,
which will operate in North America, this project represents the first attempt to analyze the
impact of such incentive and penalty clauses on service quality.
The results from the comparison between the optimal control strategies with the
Tren Urbano hypothetical solution showed that the optimal control strategies resulted in
greater passenger waiting time savings, ranging from 4%-33%. Proposals are developed
to modify the contract terms as well as the incentive/penalty structure in order to create a
set of new contract provisions where the contractor's interest are more perfectly aligned
with the owner's objectives and passengers' expectations.
Automating Workflow in Large-Scale Engineering Project -- A Web Based Workflow Management System for Tren Urbano Project
The goal of this project was to provide a framework and a working model for automating workflow in
large-scale engineering projects. A web based workflow management system for construction
management was presented in the context of Tren Urbano (Urban Train) Project. The system is designed to recognize that the Project's workflow process often involves geographically distributed collaboration, and it requires an effective and efficient mechanism for easy and secure
information access and exchange. As a web
based application, the system also has such build-in features as intelligent workflow routing, automatic document control, and digital signature to provide a virtual space for workflow management.
Older Adult Perceptions of Transit Security and Their Utilization of Public Transportation: Ridership Strategies for the Elderly on Tren Urbano
This study surveys 182 seniors age 60 and over at eleven transit-accessible senior centers in the
Boston Metropolitan Area. The centers were chosen for their diversity in terms of income, proximity to public transit, and level of transit use in the community. The objectives of the survey were to find out the frequency with which seniors take public transit; what they use it for; how they make mode choice decisions; the extent and cause of their public transit fear; and if
their fear impacts their ridership patterns. The data was analyzed by using various statistical
techniques: counts, averages, cross-tabulation, correlation coefficients, regression, and hypothesis testing.
Procurement Strategies for Long-Term Control, Operation and Maintenance of Tren Urbano after 2006
This project presents procurement strategies for control, operation and maintenance of the Tren Urbano system beyond the first five years of O & M. Issues that will influence the procurement decision-making process are discussed and analyzed. Five possible O & M alternatives are examined. Their merits and demerits are weighed, and strategies for preparing each alternative are devised.