TransMilenio

Background

Before TransMilenio, mass transit in Bogotá consisted of thousands of independently operated and uncoordinated mini buses. There was also a plan for a network of elevated highways throughout Bogotá, and plans to build a subway as Medellín had done several years prior. When Enrique Peñalosa was elected mayor he cancelled these projects and oversaw the construction of the initial TransMilenio system, significantly reducing costs relative to these proposals.

Construction and opening

The mayor oversaw the creation of a special company to build the project and run the central system. The operational design of TransMilenio was undertaken by transport consultants Steer Davies Gleave, with the financial structuring of the project led by Capitalcorp S.A., a local investment bank. Most of the money required to build TransMilenio was provided by the Colombian government, while the city of Bogotá provided the remaining 30%.

The first phase of TransMilenio opened in December 2000, three years after the project was initiated. It covered Caracas Avenue and 80th Street. Other lines were added gradually over the next several years. In 1998, Prior to the introduction of TransMilenio, a 30 km trip by public transport would take 2 hours and 15 minutes; the same trip using TransMilenio in 2008 took 55 minutes.

In the beginning, most buses were diesel-powered, purchased from manufacturers such as the Colombian-Brazilian company Marcopolo-Superior, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and Scania. The buses were articulated and had a capacity of 160 passengers each. In May 2007, a new, larger bi-articulated bus, with capacity for 270 passengers, was presented to the public.

Bogotá won the first Sustainable Transport Award in 2005 due to the BRT system, as well as the city's urban cycling strategy.

For two days starting May 2 2006, several groups of bus drivers not associated with TransMilenio held a strike, protesting against some elements and consequences of the system. They disagreed with the amount of monetary compensation that they would receive in exchange for the disposal of old buses (from 10 to over 20 years old), traffic restrictions on the TransMilenio main lines, and a new initiative called Pico y Placa Ambiental ("Peak and Plate Environmental") in some city areas, which would restrict the schedules of buses older than 10 years to early morning hours to reduce pollution in the city.

Since the May 2006 expansion, the TransMilenio route system has changed dramatically, with new sections added to the system.

Large-scale protests over deficiencies in TransMilenio erupted on March 9 2012. Hundreds of protestors, many of them students, looted and broke windows, as well as blocking several of Bogotá's main roads. Criticisms cited include relatively high prices, overcrowding, and delays along many routes. 11 were injured, and over half a million dollars in damage were done. The vandals were confronted and detained by riot police, who used tear gas as well as water cannons to combat the protestors.

The zoning divides the trunks into 12 lines or zones that have different letters and colors. The maps changed at each station, to show the specific services to the station in question and the way to reach the other zones of the system from there.

The trunk system has three types of services:

Regular Routes (Ruta Fácil): These are the numbered routes from 1 to 9 that stop at all stations and work all day. As of August 2008, this type of service was called the Easy Route. On June 17, 2017, these services were modified, replacing the routes that operated since 2006 by shorter trails, in addition to a change of nomenclature, which did not include the letter and the color of the destination area.

Express (Expreso): Routes that only stop at the stations determined in their route, and are numbered from 10 to 76.

Controversies

User strikes

In 2016, TransMilenio had an 86% disapproval rating from users. User strikes erupted over poor service quality, with users blocking bus lanes and at times halting the entire system. These protests sometimes devolved into riots, involving heavy police presence and the use of crowd control measures such as tear gas and water cannons.

Overcrowding

The system was described by users, independent bodies and the media as suffering from overcrowding, with an average of eight passengers per square meter. It has also been criticised for its lack of security, and for providing bad customer service. During rush hours, it was so crowded that "stations are so packed that people can't get off the bus". In some stations, overcrowding was so severe that users had to wait in a long line to top up their Smart card and another line to enter the station. According to official data in 2017, there were 3,404 thefts in TransMilenio stations, and 1,442 more on buses.

Construction

During construction, there were problems with the concrete used to pave the dedicated roads, which had an estimated cost to the city of COL$1.6 trillion (US$500 million). In 2012, Bogota's secretary of finance said that the line built along Avenida Caracas should be rebuilt, as well as some parts of the Avenida 26 line.

Air pollution

A study conducted by the National University of Colombia in 2015 revealed that 70% of the air pollution near TransMilenio exits had been caused by the buses put into service during the first phase of the service's rollout. According to official data, more than 50% of the first and second phase buses broke atmospheric emissions rules. Concerns were also raised by academics, councillors, and citizens around the fact that many TransMilenio buses were diesel-powered, due to the risk of lung cancer posed by their exhaust fumes.

Sexual assaults

Women in Bogotá have stated that the overcrowding in the system makes it easy for criminals to attack women and go unnoticed. According to a 2012 survey conducted by the Secretary for Women's Issues of Bogotá, 64% of women reported they have been victims of sexual assault while using TransMilenio services. Several policies have been adopted in order to confront this problem, like an exclusive bus for women, and special undercover policewomen, however TransMilenio continued to face reports of sexual assaults as of 2018.

Broken buses

Throughout 2017 and 2018, TransMilenio buses received criticism for a variety of incidents involving buses facing serious mechanical problems while in service. This included buses being burned due to mechanical problems, a bus being broken in half, tires flying off buses and hitting cars, and passengers reporting water leaking into buses during rain.