Medellin’s Avenida 80 Light-Rail Wins Finance, Completion Seen by 2026
Colombia President Ivan Duque, Medellin Mayor Daniel Quintero and Antioquia Governor Aníbal Gaviria on November 30 joined in Bogota at an official signing ceremony guaranteeing finance for Medellin’s newest mass-transit project: the COP$3.54 trillion (US$991 million) Avenida 80 light-rail system.
Under the deal, the Colombian government will contribute COP$2.4 trillion (US$672 million) or 70% of the capital cost, while the city of Medellin will contribute the remaining 30% (COP$1.14 trillion/US$319 million).
Once completed by 2026, the new addition to Medellin’s world-class, zero-emissions mass-transit system – already serving more than 1 million passengers daily — will extend 13.25-kilometers in length along the crowded Avenida 80 corridor, serving 17 stations in western neighborhoods that house nearly one-third of Medellin’s residents.
The light-rail system will connect with Medellin’s existing “Metro” elevated rail network, a growing network of electric aerial tram lines, the “Metroplus” bus rapid transit lines, “EnCicla” free bicycles, and dedicated bicycle paths throughout the city, all offering clean and relatively efficient alternatives to polluting car and motorcycle transport.
At the Bogota ceremony marking the official launch of the Avenida 80 project, President Duque recalled his childhood in Medellin, “starting with the Boston neighborhood, the neighborhood where my family lived for decades,” he said.
“Today, when I see that this dream [of an Avenida 80 tramway] becomes possible, I also see that this is in harmony with a vision of a country that is not in ideological conflicts. These [public infrastructure] projects are neither of the right wing nor of the left, they are of common sense, of well-being, of the entire community.
“[Likewise], the development of the Software Valley [in Medellin], that is not left or right wing, it is common sense to appropriate technology to transform the community. The entrepreneurial projects and ‘green’ projects that we have been developing are neither from the left nor from the right, they are common sense so that we have a vision of clean growth,” he added.
