Medellin, Colombia: a Global Leader in Public Transportation

Medellin has been recognized as one of the best cities in the world for public transportation infrastructure and systems. In its latest publication on cities with excellent public transport, the prestigious Condé Nast Traveler review ranked Medellin among the top 10 cities with the best transit systems in the world.

Medellin’s metro is a top public transportation system

The Medellin public transportation operates four different systems: metro, tram, bus and MetroCable. Medellin is the only Colombian city with a metro system, operating two lines since 1995 and 1996, running north to south and from the center to the west respectively. It is a very modern and popular means of transportation, with approximately 1.16 million daily passagenrs.

Reacting to Medellin’s distinction, the city’s mayor, Federico Gutierrez, announced through his Twitter account the upcoming start of construction on a third metro line that will serve the Robledo, Laureles, Belen and Guayabal neighborhoods in the west of the city.

Medellin’s pride: the MetroCable

Medellin’s public transportation has another remarkable feature: the MetroCable, a gondola lift and cable car system operating above the entire city. Its importance is both social and symbolic. Medellin is a very mountainous city, characterized by a significant concentration of poor populations on the slopes of the mountains surrounding the city.

The MetroCable connects outlying areas to the city centre, and so plays a crucial role for these populations, cutting their travel time by half, or even by a quarter in some cases, to reach the downtown area located in the flat zone. After the years of violence that Medellin experienced in the 1990s, the development of the MetroCable was a means to promote the social intergration of excluded populations.

Additionally, the MetroCable plays an important role in the dynamics of local tourism, being a major attraction. Out of the six MetroCable lines, the line L in particular offers a panoramic view of the city and provides access to Arvi Park, a beautiful ecological nature reserve.