Metro has a twin in San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan, Puerto Rico has a subway system called Tren Urbano that offers quick, comfortable rides from the city’s outskirts to near its center. A lot of visitors don’t even know it exists, let alone that it was the last system like Washington DC’s Metro built in the US.

Tren Urbano’s single line stretches 10.7 miles from Sagrado Corazon, just outside San Juan’s tourist center, to the western suburb of Bayamon.

The line opened in 2004, largely funded by a Federal Transit Administration grant. It was the last new heavy rail system— which is what the DC Metro is— to open in the country.

Tren Urbano is comfortable and easy to ride. Stations are large and airy with wide platforms, with numerous faregates and ticket machines that are almost carbon copies of those used by the New York subway.

Some popular places aren’t accessible from the line

While Tren Urbano in some ways acts as a spine in San Juan’s public transit system, with buses and taxis congregating at stations, its overall reach is rather limited. The Sagrado Corazon terminal is just inside the border of San Juan’s densest district, Santruce, and about a mile from the Minillas government center. The station is about a 10-minute taxi ride from the hotel and convention area just outside San Juan’s popular old city.

In addition, the line only stretches to San Juan’s western suburbs and not to the south or east.

Ridership has held relatively steady. Data from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) shows Tren Urbano carried an average of 31,400 passengers on weekdays in the third quarter of 2015, down from the average of 32,600 passengers on weekdays in the third quarter of 2007, the first time the organization reported third quarter ridership.

Tren Urbano does serve some important destinations, including the Hato Rey financial district and the University of Puerto Rico’s Río Piedras campus.

There were also a couple of newish high-rise residential towers visible within walking distance of the Hato Rey station, suggesting the line has attracted some transit-oriented development.

Unfortunately, Puerto Rico’s well-documented financial troubles are likely to limit any expansion in the near future.

San Juan appears to be making other alternative transportation investments, like protected bike lanes leading into the old city, that will benefit residents and visitors alike.

For more on transit developments in other cities and around the world, check out Greater Greater Washington’s articles about Cape Town, Dallas, Hartford, Johannesburg, Oakland airport and San Diego.