14 What Can the South Learn from the North Regarding the …
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where pre-TransMilenio era companies could bid if they had previously demonstrated
experience operating the city transportation system. This process motivated the birth
of new entities, composed of former bus companies partnering with firms from other
industries responsible for cash investments, and high competition between them.
Because it improved the efficiency of the overall transportation system, reduced
travel times and afforded significant cost saving for citizens (Bocarejo et al. 2014),
TransMilenio was first considered a success for the city of Bogota. However, Bogota’s
public authorities failed in using the development of TransMilenio to create a citywide integrated transportation system. While TransMilenio ran in a regulated manner
on dedicated bus lines, pre-Transmilenio collective public transport, still completely
unregulated, actually continued running in parallel on streets (Ramos 2015), creating competition between the BRT and pre-TransMilenio collective transport. Public
authorities did not also use TransMilenio to create a citywide integrated fare system.
Indeed, a dedicated fare system, the blue and red smart cards operated by Angelcom
(El Espectador 2014), was specifically created for TransMilenio, that did not allow
users to transfer freely to and from non-TransMilenio buses. To address the cruel
lack of integration that was characterizing Bogotà public transport system at that
time, the city of Bogotá proposed in 2009, as part of the Bogotá Mobility Master
Plan, the development of the SITP (Integrated Public Transport System of Bogota).
At the core of the SITP lied the development of an integrated fare system, which was
to be supported by a unique payment method, aimed at improving local traveling
conditions (SDP 2009). In July 2011, the city of Bogotá awarded Recaudo Bogotá,
a concession composed of three different shareholders, namely Citymovil (60%),
Land Developer (20%), and LG CNS (20%), for the operation of the fare collection
and user information of SITP. LG CNS was in charge of providing an automatic fare
collection system (AFC), aiming at integrating the TransMilenio routes with the new
feeder routes, that were going to be developed later to replace the old unregulated
feeder bus lines, dating from the pre-TransMilenio era.
The funding of Recaudo Bogotá was secured through a $176 million financing
package loan by the World Bank, HSBC and Korean Banks (Shinhan and Woori
Bank). The loan aimed at enabling Recaudo Bogotá to develop and introduce an
easy-to-use electronic-payment mechanism supported by a smart card named “Tu
Llave” card (standing for “Your key” in Spanish), which would eventually eliminate
cash from the system, and enable free transfer between SITP bus routes, resulting
ultimately in increased efficiency of the system, and security for users (IFC 2012).
From a technological point of view the “Tu Llave” card works exactly as the T-money
card as they both use Infineon’s Security Microcontroller SLE66 with 4K Memory.
As part of the SITP, an important part of the city bus system was also redesigned,
forcing most of the pre-TransMilenio bus companies operating in parallel to the
BRT to stop operations, and to conform to the same competitive concession arrangements and regulations devised under TransMilenio (World Bank 2014). Those newly
regulated bus-operating companies, who for many started to operate as TransMilenio feeder lines, combined with TransMilenio, formed the SITP network, on which
the only mode of payment accepted was the “Tu Llave” card. As part of SITP, bus
169
where pre-TransMilenio era companies could bid if they had previously demonstrated
experience operating the city transportation system. This process motivated the birth
of new entities, composed of former bus companies partnering with firms from other
industries responsible for cash investments, and high competition between them.
Because it improved the efficiency of the overall transportation system, reduced
travel times and afforded significant cost saving for citizens (Bocarejo et al. 2014),
TransMilenio was first considered a success for the city of Bogota. However, Bogota’s
public authorities failed in using the development of TransMilenio to create a citywide integrated transportation system. While TransMilenio ran in a regulated manner
on dedicated bus lines, pre-Transmilenio collective public transport, still completely
unregulated, actually continued running in parallel on streets (Ramos 2015), creating competition between the BRT and pre-TransMilenio collective transport. Public
authorities did not also use TransMilenio to create a citywide integrated fare system.
Indeed, a dedicated fare system, the blue and red smart cards operated by Angelcom
(El Espectador 2014), was specifically created for TransMilenio, that did not allow
users to transfer freely to and from non-TransMilenio buses. To address the cruel
lack of integration that was characterizing Bogotà public transport system at that
time, the city of Bogotá proposed in 2009, as part of the Bogotá Mobility Master
Plan, the development of the SITP (Integrated Public Transport System of Bogota).
At the core of the SITP lied the development of an integrated fare system, which was
to be supported by a unique payment method, aimed at improving local traveling
conditions (SDP 2009). In July 2011, the city of Bogotá awarded Recaudo Bogotá,
a concession composed of three different shareholders, namely Citymovil (60%),
Land Developer (20%), and LG CNS (20%), for the operation of the fare collection
and user information of SITP. LG CNS was in charge of providing an automatic fare
collection system (AFC), aiming at integrating the TransMilenio routes with the new
feeder routes, that were going to be developed later to replace the old unregulated
feeder bus lines, dating from the pre-TransMilenio era.
The funding of Recaudo Bogotá was secured through a $176 million financing
package loan by the World Bank, HSBC and Korean Banks (Shinhan and Woori
Bank). The loan aimed at enabling Recaudo Bogotá to develop and introduce an
easy-to-use electronic-payment mechanism supported by a smart card named “Tu
Llave” card (standing for “Your key” in Spanish), which would eventually eliminate
cash from the system, and enable free transfer between SITP bus routes, resulting
ultimately in increased efficiency of the system, and security for users (IFC 2012).
From a technological point of view the “Tu Llave” card works exactly as the T-money
card as they both use Infineon’s Security Microcontroller SLE66 with 4K Memory.
As part of the SITP, an important part of the city bus system was also redesigned,
forcing most of the pre-TransMilenio bus companies operating in parallel to the
BRT to stop operations, and to conform to the same competitive concession arrangements and regulations devised under TransMilenio (World Bank 2014). Those newly
regulated bus-operating companies, who for many started to operate as TransMilenio feeder lines, combined with TransMilenio, formed the SITP network, on which
the only mode of payment accepted was the “Tu Llave” card. As part of SITP, bus