Medellin Metro Gets Funds to Buy 20 More Trains
Findeter – the Colombian government finance agency – announced September 15 that it has disbursed a COP55 billion (US$18.5 million) loan to Metro de Medellin, enabling the purchase of 20 more train-cars for the city’s hugely popular metro-rail system.
The additional train-cars will enable transport of another 200,000 daily passengers, according to Findeter. The Metro rail system currently transports some 820,000 passengers daily.
The Findeter funds account for 30% of the COP$275 billion (US$92.6 million) total cost for the new train-cars.
Banco de Occidente is the intermediary for the 12-year term loan, which enjoys Colombian government subsidies on the interest due, according to Findeter.
“To access the [loan] resources, Metro directors filed an application that met all the requirements for the project structure as well as the procedures required by the Ministry of Transport, which was responsible for evaluating the application,” according to Findeter.
“Medellin is a city renowned for being at the forefront of innovation and leading the trends in urban planning,” added Findeter president Luis Fernando Arboleda.
Medellin boasts of having Colombia’s only metro-rail system. The city also pioneered the development of the “MetroCable” cable-car system, which connects some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods to the Metro rail system as well as to the integrated “Metroplus” bus rapid-transit (BRT) system throughout Medellin.
According to Metro, the new rail cars – when installed over the next couple of years — will cut the time between trains to 2 minutes 40 seconds, compared to 3 minutes 40 seconds currently.
