The landscape of Transmilenio, Bogotá's mass transportation system, now has more bars than usual.
In addition to the usual ones on the walls of the stations and those that separate the bus lane from that of private cars, in recent months those of enormous prison-like turnstiles have been added, which cover the space from floor to ceiling in the stations. entries, and that seek to combat payment evasion, one of the biggest problems of the system.
The remedy, however, brings with it difficulties: the new turnstiles hinder the entry and exit of the stations for service users and are already violated by the looting of the trains.
The installation of the turnstiles began to become widespread in July 2023 - they were already working at the Santa Lucía station, in the southeast of the city - and is still continuing, gradually.
This generalization of new accesses has revealed, in turn, several problems.
One of them is that they often do not flow properly;
They get stuck, and only work if the person makes a slight movement in reverse.
Another is derived from it, which is the delay in entering or leaving, and the consequent congestion at the stations.
One more is that they are a difficulty if users carry luggage larger than a suitcase or backpack.
Thus, the plan to combat the illegals has gone beyond the comfort of all citizens.
Evasion of paying the fare is one of the most serious problems of Transmilenio.
The sneaks take advantage of the absence of officials, damaged or ajar doors, priority access and, in general, any loophole that the system, already fragile, gives them to be able to use it without paying, even if that means risking their physical integrity. .
In November 2023, Transmilenio reported that the percentage of users who were sneaked into the system was 15.32%, a decrease of 13 percentage points compared to the 28.51% in 2022. The figure is similar to 15. 4% registered in 2021 ―before the new turnstiles―, according to a study carried out by academics from the universities of Los Andes and Del Norte.
We have good news for our users!
😃
Today the Molinos 🚉 station on the Caracas South trunk, which was closed for 🪛 adaptation works, reopens its doors to serve the nearly 14 thousand users who travel at this point in the System.
👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/nE8BGzcflI
— TransMilenio (@TransMilenio) January 30, 2024
Videos of how evaders circumvent the new turnstile system have already circulated on social networks.
In one you can see when a group of people climb the metal structure to pass through the small space between the turnstile and the roof of the station.
In another, while one forces the glass doors that serve as access for wheelchairs and strollers to keep it open, several sneak in in a movement that does not last more than 10 or 15 seconds.
One more shows a woman who tried to crawl under one of those same glass doors, but she got stuck at hip height and had to be helped by officials.
The system itself mocked the ridiculousness, although it later deleted the
tweet
in which she did so.
Sergio Montero, professor of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto, comments that the reasons behind the evasion are diverse.
“Many times, non-payment of a public transportation ticket is a disagreement, either with the system or with the city,” he says.
Erik Vergel-Tovar, professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Los Andes, lists another reason: “The evasion in Transmilenio has to do with the cost of travel – 2,950 pesos (0.75 dollars) – compared to the income level.” .
Montero agrees: “Prices go up, and there is no special rate for those who are in disadvantaged conditions.”
He even mentions the possibility that there are people who want to replicate in Bogotá the
passe livre
movement , which fights for free public transportation in Brazil.
“It's a mix of a lot of these things,” he says.
Beyond the reasons for using the system without paying, doubts abound about tourniquets as a solution to a problem with so many roots.
Montero, who lived in Bogotá until last June, does not consider them convenient: "It is absurd to propose for evasion a physical thing that hinders, inconveniences and delays all users of a system so that perhaps the leaks decrease."
In his opinion, when installing the turnstiles the discomfort they cause is not taken into account: “If one did those calculations, suddenly the decrease in the number of casts would not be so relevant.”
Furthermore, he believes that it can lead to a drop in the quality of the system as today's users use other means of transportation tomorrow.
According to the citizen perception survey
of Bogotá Como Vamos, in 2023 there was an increase in the satisfaction of Transmilenio users (38.8%) compared to what there was in 2022 (29.7%).
However, the level of dissatisfaction barely decreased by less than one percentage point, from 40.6% in 2022 to 39.8% in 2023. According to the survey, the main reasons for dissatisfaction with the system are thefts , the congestion of people, the delay in journeys, the uncertainty in frequencies and the cost.
On the other hand, the percentage of satisfaction with citizen culture on the roads increased from 14.4% in 2022 to 17.4% in 2023, while dissatisfaction rose from 57.4% to 53.8%.
The new turnstiles have an impact on system congestion.
Montero says: “If during rush hours people have to wait for a bus to arrive, now, where these turnstiles have been installed, even more delays are being created.”
But, in addition, its installation reveals a “waste of resources” in the system, which does not adequately place security personnel at the stations.
“If there is a security guard, you would expect him to be close to the entrance to control or discourage people from breaking in.
But I have seen these people in the spaces between the cars, which is useless, because it neither serves to control the entry nor if there is a robbery.
With the new entrances, on the other hand, there are more officials near the station entrances, but they are not there so much to ensure that no one sneaks in, but rather to guide people whose traffic is hindered by the turnstiles, which It makes sense of the idea that, if a system needs to be regulated or explained, it is because it does not work very well.
Montero adds: “For me the quickest strategy is to use the private security people who are already hired so that they make sure that people do not sneak in.
I'm surprised that, with the whole narrative about the crashes, the security people are not keeping an eye on the entrance.
Obviously people sneak in because nobody says anything.”
The academic points out that the malfunctioning of the doors or the poor location of those in charge of security reveal failures in the supervision of the system.
“Now the easiest solution is to put a tourniquet.
But it could be that someone tries to break it, and since there is no one supervising, that broken turnstile will still be there and people will sneak in,” he added.
What he saw as a possibility has become reality: another social media video shows how a group of people sneak through the space left by a bar that was torn from a turnstile.
In a somewhat passive-aggressive tone, the system announced in citizenship".
Transmilenio's losses beyond the leaks
From the Mayor's Office of Bogotá and the administration of Transmilenio, the existence of leaks is the most heard reason when explaining the system's fiscal deficit.
Generally, next to the evasion figures, there is the one that accounts for the monetary losses that this causes. And it is not strange that, from time to time, news appears in the media reporting an alleged risk of Transmilenio de stop operating due to their financial losses.
However, the economic problems of the system have more complex and less visible explanations than the evaders (which, according to Montero, is a never-ending issue: "Even if the service was spectacular, there will always be a minimum percentage of sneaks").
In July 2023, the now mayor of Bogotá, Carlos Fernando Galán, rounded up the annual losses of the Bogotá transportation system on behalf of the colados to 600,000 million pesos, which is a topic as high in the media as it is outrageous for citizens.
This is not the case with the responsibility for managing Transmilenio in the enormous deficit that the system has.
The research
Opacity in the public-private partnership of Transmilenio
, by Paola Andrea Torres at the University of Los Andes, indicates that it was not the leaks but the way in which the system's concession contracts have been handled that has created the deficit company tax.
Bogotá loses more than 600 billion pesos a year due to colados.
The mayor does not lose, a former mayor does not lose, the operators do not lose.
Bogotá loses: that money is covered by the citizens.
Why do we insist on sabotaging and stealing from ourselves?
pic.twitter.com/uTuPT2ykgP
— Carlos F. Galán (@CarlosFGalan) July 9, 2023
The investigation concluded that the changes made in 2003, 2010 and 2017 in the system's public-private alliance contract resulted in high profitability for the private sector, but low savings for the public administration.
For Torres, since the beginning of the alliance, in 1999, an opacity was agreed in favor of the private sector that has prevented an oversight by citizens and control bodies about the financial state of the system.
According to the investigation, Transmilenio's financial deficit throughout its existence shows that “the system was not self-sustainable from its beginnings,” and that the aforementioned contractual variations “increased the deficit significantly.”
In this regard, Professor Montero comments: "Many people could say that it is being transferred to citizens to pay for a system that was designed in a way that later changed and that now has an increasingly greater deficit."
For this reason, he affirms that it is necessary to bring to the debate the need to restructure the way in which the system is being financed.
And regarding the responsibility for the financial crisis of the system, he assures: “You cannot blame the citizens who use Transmilenio, nor the percentage that slips through, this is also a responsibility of the Mayor's Office and the way in which it has been negotiated. that system.”
Mayor Galán reported that the system's deficit is three billion pesos (about 750 million dollars).
Ciudad Bolívar, an example for the rest of Bogotá
Professor Vergel considers that it is too early to know if the new Transmilenio turnstiles are effective or not.
However, he mentions a precedent in Bogotá for this type of access: those of the Ciudad Bolívar aerial cable.
“There are no complaints from the community there.
The stations are in very good condition, the maintenance is impeccable, people have taken great ownership of the system, and it has the turnstiles,” he says.
What is this appropriation due to?
Montero believes: “There is a feeling of belonging of these neighborhoods with that system, which is perceived as something that has improved mobility.”
On the contrary, in the case of Transmilenio, there are more dissatisfied than satisfied, according to the figures.
Another factor that plays in favor of the operation of the aerial cable is that the residents of that area feel part of the system.
Montero says that there is a team of several people who are dedicated to talking to the community so that they empathize with him and love him.
In addition, many of the members of that team live in the neighborhoods that use cable the most, so it goes from being seen only as a means of transportation to being seen as the place where neighbors, friends and family work.
There, he explains, may be the reason why, during the national strike, the cable stations remained intact, while many of the Transmilenio stations were burned and destroyed.
It may also be the reason why evasion is almost non-existent.
Vergel brings up a phrase about Transmilenio: “The system was a victim of its own success.”
He remembers that, when it started, the service was very well received by citizens, many of whom even stopped using cars to switch to buses.
However, the current perception is negative, and that may be related to the number of castings.
In his opinion, to combat evasion it is necessary to implement
carrot and stick
measures : the first, those of a police nature that force people to change their behavior, and the others, more linked to the citizen culture by which, Remember, Bogotá was a reference throughout the world two decades ago but is now lost.
To do this, it is considered necessary to recover the strategies undertaken by the two-time mayor of Bogotá Antanas Mockus, who understood public shame as an element of coercion.
“If there begins to be control among users to expose those who do not comply with the rules, and we lead people to expose them to public shame, any strategy that manages that principle can be successful,” he says.
Aware that times are different, he does not believe that it is necessary to return to the same measures from two decades ago, but rather to keep the philosophy alive, for example, taking advantage of today's technological tools.
That is not the only thing, however: "We must see how the system can begin to work on schemes that support the vulnerable population with differentiated costs."
Montero, for his part, in addition to insisting on the need to improve the work of the security personnel who are already hired, considers it essential to guarantee that the stations function properly (the doors for the buses, for example, which are one of the places where where evaders sneak in most).
But he believes it is necessary to understand the motives behind those who do not pay.
“Is it a price issue, that they want free public transportation?
How do we ensure that young people pay less, but pay?
And not only them: there are also others who cannot access the system.”
The solution, he believes, must take into account all these aspects, but also the idea that the new turnstiles inconvenience, delay and degrade a system that, although at first glance it does not reveal it, has its roots in many of the problems that Bogotá has. pending to be resolved.
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