The results of a polling agency’s survey were markedly different from those of an impromptu show-of-hands consultation conducted by President López Obrador over a planned infrastructure project in Durango.

A telephone poll by Massive Caller, a Mexican polling company, found that 63.1% of residents of the Laguna metropolitan area were in favor of continuing with a Metrobús project which the president promised to cancel after his impromptu consultation last Sunday.

The poll consulted 1,200 adult residents of the Coahuila municipalities of Torreón and Matamoros and the Durango municipalities of Gómez Palacio and Lerdo.

Support for the Metrobús was slightly lower in Gómez Palacio — where the show-of-hands vote took place —where 58.8% said they supported the project.

Rogelio Barrios, president of a Laguna chamber of commerce, said that in light of the poll the cancellation should be reconsidered because it will have a negative impact for the people who travel between the municipalities in the metropolitan area.

López Obrador announced he would pull federal funding for the Durango portion of the Metrobús after his consultation of people attending a rally in Gómez Palacio produced a strong show of opposition.

But he indicated later that he was open to a more formal consultation to determine whether the project should go ahead.

The Metrobús would connect the four municipalities and two states of the Laguna region with a 32.5-kilometer route, 31 stations and 525 vehicles, serving up to 170,000 trips daily.

Work on the Coahuila portions of the Metrobús, which represents 24.8 kilometers of the 32.5-kilometer route, is already 90% complete. The state government has said it plans to finish its section of the system regardless of whether the route will continue across the Nazas River into Durango.

The Metrobús is opposed by bus drivers who are concerned the new system won’t include them.

According to Massive Caller, the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4%.

Source: El Economista (sp)