Public transportation has become one of the main indicators of urban development in Latin America; however, Colombia lags a bit behind. In a region marked by rapid urban expansion, chronic congestion, and deep social inequalities, the ability to move millions of people efficiently has a direct impact on economic productivity, territorial equity, and quality of life.
While several Latin American metropolises have succeeded in building robust, high-capacity public transportation systems, Colombia — despite isolated advances — continues to develop its mobility to catch up with the region’s leaders.
Mexico City: mobility at a megacity scale
Mexico City has the largest public transportation system and the highest ridership volume in Latin America. According to the Collective Transportation System, the Metro, operated by the Collective Transportation System (STC), exceeds 200 kilometers of track and carries more than 3 million passengers on a typical weekday, surpassing 1 billion trips per year.
Beyond being a functional system, it is important to highlight that public transportation in Mexico has been treated as a state policy for decades. Since its inauguration in 1969, the Metro has expanded steadily across successive administrations, maintaining a continuous rail-based growth strategy.
Unlike in other countries in the region where major projects are stalled or restarted due to political change, Mexico has sustained a long-term vision for urban mobility that transcends individual governments.
Another key factor is multimodal integration. The Metro is interconnected with suburban rail, bus rapid transit, trolleybuses, and concessioned transport systems through coordinated fare and operational schemes.
This integration allows millions of users to combine multiple modes within a single journey, reducing travel times and overall commuting costs. Entire neighborhoods have been able to develop around stations, making public transportation an essential driver of urbanization.
Officials from the city’s Secretariat of Mobility have publicly acknowledged that without this rail network, the city would be virtually unmanageable given its population density and urban sprawl. Beyond sheer ridership, the Metro has shaped urban development patterns, reduced commuting costs for millions of residents, and sustained the daily functioning of the metropolitan economy.
São Paulo: rail integration and high capacity
São Paulo stands as another major regional benchmark, supported by an integrated metro and suburban rail network. The metropolitan rail system exceeds 380 kilometers in length and carries more than 5 million passengers daily, according to official figures from the government of the State of São Paulo and from the São Paulo Metro Company, along with the Paulista Metropolitan Trains Company. In this regard, São Paulo has one of the most extensive urban rail networks in the region.
In addition, public transportation has been treated as strategic infrastructure for the national economy, not merely as an urban service. As Brazil’s main financial and industrial hub, São Paulo requires a system capable of sustaining the daily productivity of millions of workers. For this reason, the expansion of the metro and suburban rail systems has continued across successive state administrations, maintaining a consistent model of rail-based growth.
Another key factor has been the integration between the metro, metropolitan rail, and urban bus networks. Although the system is operated by different entities, there is a fare and operational coordination that allows passengers to combine multiple modes within the metropolitan area. This is particularly significant in a city characterized by long travel distances and a population spread across numerous peripheral municipalities.
Moreover, the urban impact of public transportation in São Paulo has been structural. Rail lines have defined densification axes, employment corridors, and real estate development zones. Many areas of high economic activity have consolidated around stations, reinforcing the role of public transportation as an organizer of territory rather than merely a response to traffic congestion.
In a city defined by long travel distances and severe traffic congestion, mass public transportation has been essential to preventing a structural collapse of urban mobility.
Santiago de Chile: institutional continuity and public trust
Santiago’s Metro is one of the most highly regarded systems in Latin America due to its long-term planning. With nearly 149 kilometers of network and seven lines in operation, the system transports more than 2 million passengers per day and exceeds 600 million trips annually, according to the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications of Chile.
From its inception, Santiago’s Metro was conceived as a structural project for the city rather than a partial solution to congestion. Its expansion has followed a clear technical and territorial logic, aligned with urban growth and sustained across successive administrations, allowing the consolidation of a reliable, high-capacity rail network. Like Mexico, Chile has made public transportation a state policy, ensuring consistent investment and professional system management.
Likewise, integration within the public transportation system plays a central role. Santiago’s Metro operates in coordination with the urban bus network under an integrated fare structure that facilitates transfers and reduces costs for users. This coordination has made public transportation competitive with private car use, even in middle- and high-income areas.
In addition, service quality sets Santiago apart in the regional context. The Metro’s frequency, punctuality, safety, and maintenance standards have generated high levels of public trust and intensive use. This translates into millions of daily trips and a system that sustains the everyday mobility of Chile’s capital.
In Santiago, public transportation is conceived as a structural pillar of urban development and a key tool for reducing territorial inequality.
Buenos Aires: a rail tradition that still shapes the city
Buenos Aires has one of the oldest subway systems in the world. According to the city’s Subway Authority, the network, with more than 56 kilometers of track, carries hundreds of millions of passengers each year and remains a central component of urban mobility.
Another key factor is economic accessibility. Public transportation in Buenos Aires has historically been subsidized as a tool for social inclusion, keeping fares relatively low compared to other major cities in the region. This has sustained high levels of demand and prevented excessive reliance on private automobiles, even among middle-income populations.
Likewise, metropolitan integration has been essential. Suburban rail lines connect the city with vast areas of Greater Buenos Aires, enabling long-distance daily commutes to major employment centers. This rail structure has been fundamental to the economic functioning of Argentina’s largest metropolitan area.
In addition, the urban impact of public transportation in Buenos Aires has been structural. From the subway — the first subway system in Latin America — to the broader rail corridors, the network has shaped urban growth, defined city centers, and sustained daily economic activity. Many neighborhoods developed around stations and transit corridors, reinforcing the role of public transportation as an organizer of territory.
And last but not least, the culture of public transit use sets Buenos Aires apart in the regional context. The system does not merely exist — it is used intensively and as part of everyday life. This strong social adoption, combined with an extensive and accessible network, has positioned Buenos Aires as one of the Latin American capitals most functionally dependent on public transportation.
Taken together, Buenos Aires leads in Latin America because public transportation is not a complement but the backbone of urban and metropolitan mobility, a key factor in social cohesion and the city’s daily functioning.
Medellin: global recognition and socially impactful mobility
Within this regional context, Medellin occupies a singular position. Although its system is neither the largest nor the highest volume in Latin America, it has achieved exceptional international recognition. Condé Nast Traveler named Medellin the only Latin American city included in the global top 10 for best public transportation systems, surpassing cities such as Washington, D.C., and Stockholm, Sweden, in comparative studies and as highlighted by national and international media.
According to the prestigious international travel magazine, the recognition was based on qualitative criteria such as multimodal integration, accessibility, user experience, and the social impact of transportation, rather than on the absolute size of the network.
Medellin’s system integrates metro, tram, buses, and cable cars under a single fare and operational structure, allowing historically excluded communities — often isolated by topography and informal urbanization — to connect to the formal mobility network.
According to official figures from the Medellin Metro Company, the system has surpassed 5.5 billion cumulative trips since its inauguration and currently carries more than 1 million passengers per day. For a mid-sized city in the Latin American context, this level of usage reflects strong public trust and a measurable impact on reducing travel times and territorial inequality. However, Colombia still has a long road ahead in improving infrastructure, urban development, and mobility despite Medellin’s good leadership in the field.
Colombia compared to regional leaders
Despite Medellin’s success, Colombia as a country does not rank among Latin America’s public transportation leaders. The difference compared to cities such as Mexico City, São Paulo, or Santiago is structural: the absence of large-scale urban rail networks in most Colombian cities.
Bogota, the country’s main economic center, relies primarily on bus rapid transit systems. While TransMilenio and the integrated bus system generate more than 4 million daily trips according to data provided by the Ministry of Transport, their corridor capacity and energy efficiency do not match those of the rail-based mass transit systems that dominate in the region’s leading capitals.
Although it becomes relevant that Bogota is moving forward with its long-awaited metro project — designed to structurally transform mobility, urban development, and quality of life beyond being merely a transport project — the system’s real impact remains to be seen.
At its core, the metro aims to reduce the city’s historic reliance on surface buses and road-based transport. As one of the most congested cities in Latin America, Bogota requires a high-capacity, fast, and reliable system capable of moving large volumes of passengers independent of traffic conditions.
The metro is also intended to reorganize and integrate the public transport network. Rather than replacing TransMilenio, it will complement it, operating as a rail backbone connected to buses and feeder services to shorten trips, reduce transfers, and improve efficiency. Beyond mobility, the project seeks to reshape the city’s urban structure. Stations are planned as hubs for densification, economic activity, and development, bringing housing, jobs, and services closer together and reducing long, unequal commutes.
Ultimately, the Bogota metro represents an effort to close a long-standing historical gap and align the city with other Latin American capitals that already rely on rail-based mass transit, though whether it will position Colombia among regional leaders in public transportation remains an open question.
Colombia’s lag cannot be explained solely by budget constraints. Institutional fragmentation, frequent policy shifts, and weak coordination between transportation and land-use planning have hindered the consolidation of long-term mobility systems, as stated by the National Planning Department (DNP). While other countries planned urban growth around public transportation, in Colombia, transit infrastructure often arrives as a delayed response to already congested cities.
What Colombia needs to close the gap
Closing the gap with regional leaders requires treating public transportation as a state policy. According to the Ministry of Transport, this means prioritizing urban rail infrastructure, securing stable financing sources, strengthening technical capacity, and reducing the politicization of major projects. Medellin’s experience demonstrates that the country has the technical and social capacity to succeed; the challenge lies in scaling that model nationally.
Latin America has public transportation systems capable of moving millions of people every day and shaping urban development. Medellin has shown that Colombia can stand out globally when mobility is conceived as a tool for inclusion and planning. However, unless this approach is replicated at the national level, the country will continue to trail behind regional leaders. The challenge is not technical but strategic: Deciding whether public transportation will become a pillar of urban development or remain a perpetually postponed promise.
Ultimately, the main reason why Mexico City, São Paulo, Santiago de Chile, and Buenos Aires continue to lead public transportation initiatives lies in treating mobility as a long-term public policy rather than a short-term political project.
Their leadership is defined by sustained investment in rail-based systems, institutional continuity across administrations, and a clear integration between transportation planning and urban development.
These cities have prioritized high-capacity infrastructure, stable public operators, and metropolitan-scale coordination, allowing public transit to shape growth, reduce inequality, and support economic productivity. While each city faces its own challenges, their shared commitment to planning, scale, and governance has positioned them as benchmarks for public transportation across the region.