The Government of Gustavo Petro plans to award three contracts totaling 1,817 kilometers of railway tracks in the coming years. The Executive promises to recover an old network of 3,533 kilometers – only 1,074 are operational – and take it to 5,400 by 2050.

Most of Colombia's railway network was built between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries. The decline, as in other parts of the world, began in the middle of the century with the expansion of roads and greater availability of automobiles.