Chile receives 16 offers in tender for bus routes

By MTT

This is a machine translation of the original press release issued in Spanish.

A total of 16 offers were received in the Public Tender for the Concession of the Use of Roads for the Metropolitan Public Transport System, whose Opening Ceremony for Technical Offers was held today at the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications (MTT).

On the occasion, the documentation of all the offers received for the 6 Service Units was downloaded. Thus, 5 offers were received for Service Unit 1; 3 offers for Service Unit 2; 2 offers for Service Unit 3; 3 offers for Service Unit 4; 2 offers for Service Unit 5; and an offer for Service Unit 6. The record of receipt of offers was posted today on the DTPM website.

In this process, the three business units currently operating (U4, U6, and U7) will be modified and distributed into 6 Service Units or service packages. The packages of the 6 Service Units correspond to 29% of the current services of the System and comprise a total of 153 services and more than 11 million kilometers per month. The new distribution of the service network also considers an increase in coverage by almost 50 additional km distributed in 13 points in the north, east and southeast of the city.

Among the participating companies are RedBus Urbano SA, Consorcio Metropol Chile, Ascendal Santiago SpA, Next Bus and Servicio de Transportes de Personas SA

The Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Gloria Hutt, said that “the Road Use Concession Tender is the second in a series of tenders that will completely change the business model that we know so far. By separating the strategic assets from the bus operation, the entry barriers for new players are lowered, and this enables a better quality of service to be delivered to the user. We are very satisfied with the response of the companies that have relied on this new design and we are very happy to see the interest that exists to participate, including foreign companies. Competition ends up favoring users, increasing the possibility of operating with lower costs and raising the quality of service.”

Through the new road operation scheme, new requirements and greater inspection tools are established to guarantee a better public transport service for people. Among them, the size of the Service Units is reduced, which means that on average each unit will have 400 buses. This makes it possible to minimize the risks of continuity of transport services because, in the event that a company presents operational problems that affect the quality of service, there is a real possibility of replacing the operator.

To guarantee the quality of service to users, it will be supervised that companies comply with the minimum service quality indicators, a user satisfaction survey will be applied and other variables related to compliance with labor obligations will be taken into account, as well as operational conditions.

The concession period is also reduced, from 10 to 5 years, with the option of extending the operation for up to 5 additional years when there is a minimum compliance with indicators in the delivery of quality of service.

To promote electromobility, in the case of concessionaires whose contracts include more than 50% of the buses in the electric fleet, the term will be 7 years, and may be extended for up to 7 additional years, always under the condition that the service provided complies with the minimum parameters established in the contract.

For Fernando Saka, director of Metropolitan Public Transport, the offers “show that the proposed new design is not only interesting for new players in the system, but also guarantees a better public transport service for people”.

About the opening and evaluation

Due to the current pandemic context and the restrictions that the health authority has established in order to reduce infections, including a limitation to the number of people who can meet in closed places, the public event was transmitted via streaming through the official Youtube account of the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications.

The act of opening technical offers focused exclusively on reviewing the legibility of the offers submitted by applicants in digital format, which were downloaded from the electronic system for submitting offers and it was verified that the files delivered are legible. The download of documents, which was carried out using a unique password with access only for the Evaluation Commission, represents the equivalent of opening envelopes in a bidding process and was carried out in the presence of a notary public. The content of the offers will be reviewed in later stages, in accordance with the provisions of the Bidding Terms.

During the event, the minimum reserved number of buses of the Base Operating Fleet by bus typology for each Service Unit was also announced, which defines the minimum number of fleet to operate for each Service Unit.

All the offers received met the condition of having a number greater than the established number, which is detailed below:

Source: MTT

The admissibility evaluation of the offers will be carried out later, to be published on September 10. Meanwhile, the technical evaluation will last until September 27, while the opening of the economic offers will take place on September 28.

The bidders of the Road Use Concession Bid submitted a technical offer and an economic offer, which in the final evaluation will weigh 20% and 80%, respectively. Those awarded will be those who obtain the highest score in the final evaluation. Each bidder may be awarded a maximum of 2 Service Units.

The details of the offers received are given below:

Services Unit	Offer Code	Offeror Name or Company Name	RUT or Identifier	Date and Time
US1	L028-U126-O55	REDBUS URBANO SA	99.577.050.4	08/16/2021 18:12:57
L028-U126-O56	REDBUS URBANO SA	99.577.050.4	08/16/2021 18:29:57
L028-U135-O72	CONSORTIUM METROPOL CHILE	-	08/19/2021 09:40:53
L028-U118-O75	Ascendal Santiago SpA	-	08/19/2021 12:42:36 PM
L028-U130-O68	NEXT BUS	-	08/19/2021 13:00:56
US2	L028-U135-O73	CONSORTIUM METROPOL CHILE	-	08/19/2021 09:42:37
L028-U130-O69	NEXT BUS	-	08/19/2021 13:06:12
L028-U120-O54	TRANSPORTATION SERVICE OF PEOPLE SANTIAGO SA	99.559.010-7	08/19/2021 13:45:50
US3	L028-U130-O70	NEXT BUS	-	08/19/2021 13:10:55
L028-U120-O60	TRANSPORTATION SERVICE OF PEOPLE SANTIAGO SA	99.559.010-7	08/19/2021 13:47:06
US4	L028-U126-O57	REDBUS URBANO SA	99.577.050.4	08/16/2021 18:42:17
L028-U126-O58	REDBUS URBANO SA	99.577.050.4	08/16/2021 18:54:22
L028-U118-O76	Ascendal Santiago SpA	-	08/19/2021 12:47:36
US5	L028-U118-O77	Ascendal Santiago SpA	-	08/19/2021 12:54:19
L028-U120-O61	TRANSPORTATION SERVICE OF PEOPLE SANTIAGO SA	99.559.010-7	08/19/2021 13:48:13
US6	L028-U126-O59	REDBUS URBANO SA	99.577.050.4	08/16/2021 19:07:25