The director of the National Student Transportation System (TRAE), engineer Onéximo González, informed this Sunday that the program has already reached one million students transported free of charge.
Gonzalez, a transportation expert, said that the TRAE service has expanded as planned and took the opportunity to thank all the institutions involved in its implementation and particularly his work team.
He added that TRAE has already transported a total of 1,065,870 students, which represents a savings in transportation costs of DR 319,761,000 for the benefited families.
He pointed out that the localities impacted by TRAE in its first stage are: Yamasá, Peralvillo, Sabana Grande de Boyá, Bayaguana and Monte Plata, Haina, Nigua, Palenque, Cambita, Villa Altagracia and La Victoria.
He detailed that in this first stage, TRAE has 400 buses: 65 buses operating in the pilot plan, in Monte Plata, San Cristóbal and La Victoria, in addition to the 230 buses destined for Greater Santo Domingo. Also 105 buses, of which 57 were distributed in San Cristobal, including 13 buses already transporting students in Villa Altagracia and 48 in the province of Hato Mayor.
TRAE route design
González explained that in order to achieve the success of TRAE’s implementation in the country, the routes designed were planned with the georeferenced location of the schools.
He pointed out that after this process, for three months nine brigades of technicians traveled 7,780 kilometers to verify the school corridors, define the final routes and locate the stops to pick up the students.
“This work was coordinated and executed together with the authorities of the Educational Districts of the Ministry of Education (Minerd) in each municipality of the country,” said the TRAE director.
He added that they then proceeded to program the number of buses required for each route, taking into account its length and the number of students per zone. In the same way, the schedules, number of turns for each bus per route and travel time to be used were also programmed.
What is TRAE?
The Student Transportation System of the Ministry of Education is the school transportation service designed and implemented by the government of President Luis Abinader to guarantee that the arrival and departure of Dominican students to and from school is safe, comfortable and free of charge.
President Luis Abinader created it through Decree 616-22, on October 23, 2022, declaring its implementation to be of national interest, with the purpose of:
a. Establish a National Student Transportation System to guarantee free travel for boys and girls to and from schools, in comfortable, safe and efficient buses, protecting the integrity of students and decreasing student absenteeism to class.
b. Implement safe school environments by improving access roads to educational centers and install informative and preventive vertical and horizontal signs to protect the life and health of students.
Source: presidencia.gov.do
