Colombia: 25 Years of TransMilenio and Bogota’s Unresolved Mobility Challenge

Bogota’s recent history cannot be told without mentioning the profound change that TransMilenio brought to the mobility of its residents. Twenty-five years ago, on December 18, 2000, a handful of articulated buses began running through the city on exclusive lanes along Avenida Caracas, marking the start of an urban transformation that reorganized public transportation and put an end to the disorderly and chaotic model that had characterized the Colombian capital for decades.

TransMilenio not only brought order to a fragmented system of operators and routes, but also became a central pillar of daily life for millions of people, with more than four million trips per day and a fleet exceeding 10,000 vehicles. It has also integrated new forms of mobility, such as the TransMiCable aerial cable cars, to connect areas of the city that were previously isolated. A quarter of a century later, this mass transit system remains the main means of transport for the complex mobility needs of a city that continues to grow in population and in the demand to move them.

However, despite its achievements, the system’s 25 years are marked by a mix of celebrations and persistent challenges. Traffic congestion, insecurity, and inequality in access to mobility continue to put pressure on the urban sustainability of a Bogotá that is nearing 10 million inhabitants and growing at an accelerated pace. Hopes for more efficient and equitable mobility have driven new investments in technology, fleet electrification, and intermodal projects, but they have also highlighted the need to articulate a system that goes beyond the limits of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and embraces solutions with greater capacity and reach.

As it marks a quarter century, TransMilenio is emerging as an international benchmark for mass transit in developing cities. Its model, inspired by Latin American experiences with exclusive corridors, has been studied and observed by delegations from around the world and recognized as an innovation in planning, operations, and urban sustainability.

The gradual expansion of the system has included fare integration with the Integrated Public Transport System (SITP), which allows transfers using a single card, as well as the incorporation of electric buses—advances aimed at responding to the demands of a Bogotá that is increasingly aware of its environmental footprint and the possibilities of cleaner public transportation.

Even so, criticism of the system’s capacity to resolve structural mobility problems has not ceased. Many Bogotá residents still experience long travel times, congestion during peak hours, and a perception of insecurity both in stations and in the surrounding urban environment.

Colombia: 25 years of TransMilenio and Bogota’s unresolved mobility challenge

TransMilenio was born out of an urgent need during the first administration of Mayor Enrique Peñalosa: to bring order to an unregulated urban transport system that for decades had been synonymous with inefficiency, pollution, and danger.

In the 1990s, as Bogotá expanded and its population grew steadily, the city faced a “penny war” among private operators and a constantly increasing vehicle fleet that saturated streets and avenues. The implementation of TransMilenio was a response to that accumulated chaos—an effort to establish a formal system with exclusive lanes and accessible stations that reconfigured the way people move around the capital.

With each phase of expansion, the system consolidated its presence and extended its geographic coverage, adding trunk corridors and connecting peripheral areas with the urban center. The incorporation of more than 35,000 workers in different operational and technical roles also reflects the social dimension of the project, which has been not only a means of transportation but also a source of employment and professionalization of human talent in urban mobility.

Nevertheless, despite these advances, challenges have been constant: from fare evasion, congestion at key points, and tensions in civic culture to debates over financing, security, and the need to overcome the limitations of a system based exclusively on buses.

The fact that this system entered service in December 2000—at a time when the turn of the millennium was being keenly experienced—handed its promoters the name of what was then a new form of urban transportation. Articulated buses running on exclusive lanes were quickly replicated by other cities across Latin America, given their rapid implementation and at a much lower cost than a subway system.

A long road to a subway that facilitates mobility

Despite the 25 years that have passed, and the clear relief that TransMilenio has provided—and continues to provide—for urban mobility, the system operates on the brink of collapse—especially during peak hours—in a city of 10 million inhabitants. In this context, the construction of the long-awaited Bogotá metro—whose first line is scheduled to open in 2028—will arrive with a delay of nearly eight decades.

In fact, the desire to equip Bogotá with a metro is far from recent; rather, it is an aspiration that has persisted for almost a century. From the first studies and plans in the 1990s, the idea of a high-capacity rail system faced financing obstacles, political disagreements, and shifting priorities that postponed a solution that could have significantly alleviated the city’s mobility problems. Law 336 of 1996, known as the “metro law,” established that the national government should contribute to the construction of a rail system, but economic and technical difficulties prevented the project from moving forward immediately.

Nevertheless, the first projects to build a metro date back to the early 1950s, during the government of General Rojas Pinilla. For various reasons, one proposal after another was forgotten, dismissed, or diluted in fruitless political debate over the following 50 years.

During all that time, various projects were debated and rejected for financial, technical, or political reasons, leading TransMilenio to consolidate itself as the most viable short-term solution to meet mass transit demand. Even so, the absence of a metro has been seen as a historical debt—a postponed project that many consider key to fundamentally transforming mobility in a city trapped by demographic growth and urban sprawl.

Today, the first line of the Bogotá Metro is under construction, with significant progress aimed at connecting the city’s southwest with the north-central area and offering a high-capacity alternative that complements the bus system. In addition, the Bogotá mayor’s office is already finalizing the financing for the second metro line.

Mobility and Bogota’s urban future

The commemoration of TransMilenio’s 25th anniversary is also an opportunity to reflect on the challenges Bogotá faces in terms of mobility—one of the main daily concerns for thousands of residents who lose hours each day commuting to work and, in the afternoon, returning home.

Beyond celebrations of its achievements, it is clear that the capital requires comprehensive solutions that combine different modes of transportation, urban policies oriented toward equity, and measures that promote reducing the use of private automobiles. The construction of the metro, the expansion of high-capacity corridors, and the modernization of existing systems are essential steps to confront the complexity of a city that continues to grow.

Despite recent controversies over whether or not to bury part of the urban alignment—a position defended by the presidency of Gustavo Petro and rejected by the local administrations of Claudia López (2020–2023) and Carlos Fernando Galán (2024–2027)—the massive infrastructure project continues at a good pace, under the management of a Chinese consortium.

TransMilenio has been a transformative element, but daily life in the Colombian capital highlights the limitations of relying solely on a single mode of transportation to serve a large and diverse metropolis. The current projects to build commuter rail lines to the west and north promise to connect the capital with a metropolitan area that has historically been distant from the city.

Their connection with the future metro points to a revolution in Bogotá’s urban transport before the end of this decade, after many years of fruitless demands and undignified mobility for the nation’s capital.