Moving forward

By bogotapost September 11, 2015
SIPT Transmilenio Bogota

SIPT Transmilenio BogotaOn September 2, the SITP announced the completion of work to ensure that all travel cards would work in all stations.

The final turnstile changes, in Carrera 47 and Mandalay stations, were completed on September 1, bringing the total cost of the work to USD$16 million, according to El Espectador, and meaning that the project was completed one month ahead of schedule.

Citizens of Bogota can now use any of the current three cards to access the mass public transport system of Bogota, yet some problems still persist.

Previously, Transmilenio didn’t accept the green TuLlave card as payment and SITP buses didn’t receive the veteran blue or red cards. The cards are handled by different companies who were previously involved in a legal battle over how the integration of the cards should be managed.

Despite progress, there are still some evident drawbacks. The red and blue cards are unable to register discounts, for example, for the elderly or disabled people.

These same cards also suffer from not offering the appropriate discounts for switching buses within a certain time period, although El Tiempo reported that this problem should be fixed by October 15.


By Steven Grattan

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