Medellin light rail under way

The Colombian city of Medellin is investing COP 3.5bn to build a 13.3km north–south light rail line known as Metro de la 80 after its alignment along Avenida 80, linking Caribe and Aguacatala metro stations. The line is being built by a consortium including CRRC (20 double-ended LRVs), Mota-Engil (civil construction), Ineo Urban Transportation Solutions (telematics) and Siemens Mobility (power engineering and signalling). The project is financed 70:30 by the national government and the city council and is due to open in 2028. Siemens has selected Spanish company GMV to install its SAE-R system on the LRVs with onboard computers working with trackside beacons for real-time information. 

 

Medellin (population 2.9M ) has operated a heavy metro line since 1995, now two lines covering 31.3km and carrying about 210M passengers/year. 80 1500 V dc trains have been supplied by MAN (42) and CAF (38). The hilly city also has five urban cable car lines and a 4km Translohr rubber-tyred guided bus feeding the metro.