Medellín, the second largest city in Colombia, has historically had major problems of social exclusion: the residents of the hillside barrios that sat above the city were not well served by public transport. In the early 2000s, the only ways for the residents of the barrios to go into town was to walk or to catch one of the infrequent, unreliable buses.

In 2004, the city of Medellín introduced the Metrocable, a cable car that connected the people of the low-income, hillside barrios with the city centre. Medellín was the first city to implement aerial cable cars as a part of a mass transport system (rather than low-capacity transport for mostly tourists, as seen previously in other cities.) 

The overarching goal was social inclusion and improving the quality of life in the barrios. The more specific objective of the Metrocable was to connect three of the barrios to Medellín’s main metropolitan public transport system in the centre, and to increase the Metro’s levels of usage. 

The publicly owned Metro de Medellín company and the city authorities worked closely together to implement the project.

The Metrocable has halved the average travel time from the barrios to the centre, from roughly two hours to one. Its integration with Medellín’s main public transport system has increased the comfort of passengers and reduced the cost and duration of their journeys. 

The project has inspired many other Latin American cities with similar topography and socioeconomic dynamics to explore aerial cable cars as mobility solutions. La Paz-El Alto, Bolivia; Caracas, Venezuela; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Manizales, Colombia have all built cable car systems that help connect peripheral communities to the urban core.

Photo by Mathias Lervold on Flickr