Colombia’s capital Bogota presented a completely new plan for a one-line and above-ground metro some 70 years after such mass transit system was first proposed. The mayor and the president on Saturday proposed a completely revised above-ground metro line that goes from the Las Americas terminal in the west of the city over the Avenue Primer de Mayo to the eastern Avenue Caracas.
El alcalde Mayor de Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa, reiteró que en su gobierno se construirá la primera línea del metro de Bogotá.Su anuncio fue hecho durante el panel ‘¿Qué sucederá en Bogotá?’, en el Foro Colombia 2016, donde además el alcalde dijo que el sistema masivo requerirá de una gran cultura ciudadana. “Aquí el gran desafío no es solo hacer una línea del metro, sino lograr un esfuerzo cívico ciudadano”, afirmó Peñalosa.
Seventy years in the making, the scheduled construction of Bogota’s first metro line has been delayed yet again in the face of financial woes. The $3.3 million set aside for the project are now frozen in the bank, just as the country is experiencing an economic deceleration which will lead to budget cutbacks in 2016. To add more difficulty, the recent hike in the dollar has further increased the project’s expenses.
“We desire a more secure city, with better mobility, faster, more comfortable, with projects for its development that compete with the best cities of Latin America, for the city of which we and our children are proud,” Peñalosa has promised. These commitments will center around the development of the capital’s new metro network, albeit with a number of key amendments.
The plans for the Bogota Metro may once again have to be re-written, as Enrique Peñalosa, currently leading in the polls, outlines his plans for urban transport in the city and changes he would make to the strategy approved by the incumbent Gustavo Petro. “We are going to build the subway line, but it should be elevated, not underground,” the mayoral candidate explained in a recent interview.
