New RED airport bus service has seen almost one million transactions
One year after its launch, authorities delivered a positive assessment of the 555 service.
A year on from the start of operations on the RED Movilidad 555 bus service to Santiago’s airport, the numbers have been more than positive. In the last 12 months, the service has registered 940,000 transactions.
In an assessment given by Transport and Telecommunications Minister Juan Carlos Muñoz, together with the director of Metropolitan Public Transport, Paola Tapia, 41,000 transactions were made in January of last year, rising to almost 90,000 in December.
This increase meant that the frequency of buses had to be increased, from a bus every 10 minutes to one every eight. Another important change was also made to the service: now the entire fleet is electric, with information screens that provide content and entertainment for users.
The RED Movilidad 555 bus service provides a connection between any point in Greater Santiago and the airport with the payment of a single fare, by combining the service with other modes of public transport such as buses, trains or the metro.
Route 555 study
The service has been positively assessed by users themselves. In September, the results of an Ipsos study on user satisfaction for the service were released: 63% of users evaluated it as 7/7 and 21% as 6/7. The average was 6.4/7.
The study also revealed that 48% of users travel to the airport and its surrounding area for work reasons.
Furthermore, the service’s most highly assessed attributes were: the ease of getting on the bus (6.8); the comfort of the journey (6.6); and frequency of the buses (6.6).