Santiago Metro faces a high number of damaged units, with 47 elevators and escalators out of service at press time. Engineer Ariel López reported peaks in failures during April and issues with the new Pago Ágil payment system.
In 2025 the system carried more than 660 million passengers. This high demand has accelerated equipment wear. As of May 11 2026, 39 stations showed failures, with Line 5 the most affected.
Ariel López of the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana monitored the units and detected 31 damaged escalators on April 29. Several units have been out for weeks, such as an elevator at Universidad de Chile station for 55 days.
Santiago Metro reported it performs maintenance day and night. The company attributed 47 percent of incidents to user misuse. The Ministry of Transport stated that the Pago Ágil system, launched in February, remains in a trial period and inconsistencies such as Error 402 and double charges are being corrected.
