Improving Public Transit & Sustainable Territorial Dev in Bogota

Project Summary:

The objective of this grant is to Improve public transport in Bogota by deploying policies that enable a transition to green growth in urban transport. The potential of cities as instruments for enhancing growth and reducing poverty lies in their ability to enable people to benefit from their proximity to one another.  Higher population densities in urban areas generate economies of scale that make it easier for governments to serve larger pools of people with better basic services, resulting in greater livability and quality of life in urban areas.  Bogota has made impressive transport investments in the past, but current demand has not kept up and the city is looking to embark on extensive investments in creating a more sustainable, clean, safe and human-centered urban mobility and urban space. The city has announced ambitious plans to expand and improve transit options, improve the walking and cycling environment, and implement policies to curb congestion and use of private cars. Bogota plans to expand its mass transit network and multi-modalism by increased integration of the Transmilenio Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.  Currently the BRT represents approximately 30% - nearly 2.5 million passengers a day - of the city’s public transit trips.  There is currently the need for improved bus management capacity, route system and smart card integration along with coordination between the metro lines.  

This KGGTF funded program will support activities to improve current public transit operations and user engagement and information through ICT.  The planning, along with control and monitoring capacities of the public transit agency, the improvement to service plans and route systems of the BRT, user accessibility to the system, information given to passengers and the deployment and use of smart card systems will vastly improve the design of the transit systems. Potential solutions will include the conceptual design of an open-sourced information system to strengthen the functions of transit planning, performance management and operations supported by real-time databases that accurately represent both the BRT network and the zonal buses. Technical solutions will be sought to improve the current transit system by finding improvements in the planning of bus dispatch operations along key corridors, improved efficiencies in route plans, and restructuring of routes and priority lanes as well as fare policy changes that incentivize transfers that will decrease users travel times. Additionally policy solutions will be sought that streamline and incentivize intermodal integration such as increasing smart card recharging stations, fare collection contracts, automatic smart card recharging through cellphones, along with new tools developed through passive and open sourced data. 

This grant is linked to Lending ($70,000,000)

List of Activities:

1. Improving public transit operations and user engagement and information through Information & Communication Technology (ICT):

• Improve Public Transit Operations & Bus Management Systems
• Design Methodology to Simplify Bus Routes
• Improving use of Smart Cards
• Improve User Engagement & Information through Open Data and Crowdsourcing

2. Support multimodalism, by improving the integration of Bogota’s BRT system, its zonal buses (SITP), and the future First Metro Line:

• Design the Re-Tendering of Phase 1 and Phase 2 of Transmilenio Contracts, and Possibly Renegotiate Phase3/SITP Contracts
• Design the Future Integration of Bogotá’s Metro Line One with the Transmilenio and SITP

3. Responding to territorial development challenges for Bogota-Cundinamarca Region

• Support the formulation of 1 POD 
• Opportunities for investments to build resilience
• Territorial Diagnosis and Information Data Base
• Institutional and financial schemes for implementation of POTs and opportunities for private sector participation
• Guidelines for Articulation of territorial development regional master plans in selected municipalities POTs

Outcomes:

Output 1:

• Conceptual design of initiative to improve transit operations 
• Conceptual design of initiative to improve user engagement

Output 2:

• Phase 1 &2 Concession Contracts Technical Structuring/ Parameters
• SITP technical parameters (technical structuring)
• Operational and financial model for multimodal integration
• Contract amendments for Transmilenio & SITP under a multimodal integration 

Output 3:

• One presentation summarizing results of diagnostics 
• Discussion with regional and local stakeholders of initial results.  Majors of 9 municipalities of “region vida” and Bogota, and Government of Cundinamarca
• Assessment Notes

Outcomes:

• Improved efficiency:  This grant will support the intermodal planning and operation of public transport system using ICT technologies, and through finding more efficient ways to involve the private sector in the provision of public transit. The proposed program aims to promote smart, responsive investments by facilitating the deployment of smart card policies, better integrate and engage with citizens, and improving the overall efficiency of transit routes. It hopes to also improve the multimodal integration of Bogotá’s transit network, by assessing and improving how private operators have provided transit services (concession arrangements) and how a new mode, like a subway line, will impact these services (fare structure, subsidies, sources of financing). This will result in a public transport system that reduces the main externalities of the transport network in Bogota today: congestion, safety, pollution and emissions. Furthermore, the combination of smart urban planning at regional and local level with investments in public transport, land use and housing allocation produce an effective master plan 
• Greater resilience:  As previously mentioned -- at peak hours, Transmilenio system’s tend to collapse, users complain of low frequencies, regularity and bunching at stations, an increasingly complex route system, capacity constraints at stations and security and safety concerns, particularly for women, the elderly and children.  Furthermore, research shows that with the SITP reform, most accessibility gains are due to the expansion of the Transmilenio BRT system rather than the creation of the SITP. As it stands, the system is not resilient or responsive. This grant will address those main concerns and lack of resilience that is built in to the system. By creating a multimodal integrative system that is more accessible and responsive to user demands, the overall resilience of the transport network will be increased.  This proposal will promote increased resilience, to make the Bogota- Cundinamarca Region and middle-size cities more resilient against risks arising from past development mistakes and a changing climate. 
• Increased competitiveness: The Korean experience exemplified how a strong focus on public transport improvement can bring about fiscal and environmental gains. After the reform, the total combined deficit for bus, metro, and rail decreased, as well as the social costs of transportation. In 2005, Seoul’s government reported a gain of nearly $2.4 billion in social benefits through reductions in travel time ($2.0 billion), driving costs ($0.3 billion), accidents ($47 million), and air pollution ($41 million). It is the same type of efficiencies that the government of Bogota will try to reap as they promote intermodal & ICT enabled transit strategies.  The strategic regional master plan will reinforce the Korean vision of green growth is the notion that a focus on green sustainability need not come at the expense of growth and that greening can also be a source of increased competitiveness.  This is particularly true for transport and urban policies where substantial synergies exist between environment, energy efficiency and growth objectives.

Collaboration with K-Partners and Others:

• Korean Transport Institute (KOTI)
• TOPIS
• Korean Land and Housing Corporation (LH)
• Seoul Institute
• Seoul Housing Corporation (SH)
• Secretariat of Mobility in Bogota, Transmilenio Implementing Entity (in charge of BRT and zonal buses)