It’s not a good time to TransMileniumthe most important system of Bogota and to which millions of citizens resort in order to avoid the many traffic jams that daily collapse the mobility of the city.
Despite the end of the pandemic, the transportation system has not been able to recover from a financial crisis that has it increasingly in decline, leading to debts that cannot be covered.
On the one hand, evasion or so-called ‘strained‘ from TransMilenio. Currently, one in three people do not stop their ticket, which would mean that every week about two million users evade their ticket. On the other hand, there is the investment in new articulated buses and the SITP that, despite the income of the system, has not been covered, thus leaving the financial situation on the ropes.
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Zero rate: the proposal to save TransMilenio
The councilor of the Alianza Verde party, Martín Rivera Alzate, has put this proposal on the table to put an end to the red numbers of TransMilenio. According to the lobbyist, no one has to pay the ticket, would cost an additional 1.7 billion pesos to the income of the system and that the resources could come from the National Government.
“We have to take advantage of the historic opportunity of having a president who, when he was mayor of the capital, understood the importance of lowering the cost of the ticket on TransMilenio and now you can allocate more resources from the national government to Bogotá so that we can achieve this goal,” stated the lobbyist.
Regarding the proposal, he explained: “With the paid tickets we collected only 1.4 billion pesos and adding other sources we reach $1.5 billion. What do we cover the difference in total costs with? With the Tariff Stabilization Fund. This Fund has already exceeded two billion pesos. The cost of transportation for the most vulnerable households can represent up to 30% of their income or more, taking into account the additional costs of informal transport trips“.
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Finally, the councilor stated that Bogotá could be the first city to implement a zero rate system and that the financing alternatives could come from capturing value, advertising, building certificates, among others.
