Foreign Bus and Truck Company Yutong, looking at Colombia for possible investment from now until 2030 in the public transportation industry.  

A month ago the Medellin City Council approved the changes in the Metroplus system to switch from gasoline powered vehicles to electric ones.  Starting in July of this year, EPM started with one, 30 passenger bus to transport their employees from la Alpujarra to the main EMP building. Now that the electric bus is approved for the common public, the Yutong showed interest in supplying for the project with an electric bus specially designed for cities with steep hills as is Medellin.

“I think the infrastructure needs a lot of work before they can properly implement this technology in mass transit systems. I think expanding the train system would help, especially, more city-to-city trains. Electric buses would definitely help pollution, but a lot of people are going to be upset about losing their previous jobs in the terrible gas buses that pollute the city around,” Brian Summers High School History and Economics teacher at TCS said.

Gas powered buses produce approximately 575,000 metric tons of CO2 in an average flat city, Medellin could be more due to its heavy inclines. The company proposes a plan to work with the Colombian government to implement the plan of converting the public bus system 100% to electricity in the year 2030.

“The investment needs to be made. It’s going to be a revenue stream if they have to pay for the buses to come here, then the Colombian government is going to get something out of it and will definitely benefit the economy,” Summers said when being asked about Chinese investment in Colombia.  

At the beginning months of next year, two new pilot buses are scheduled to enter the country. One articulated bus for 250 passengers and one Padron bus for 80 passengers. Both intended to continue with the testing of the new technology in the country.

“Buses are great, especially when going to the stadium. An electric bus would be better because it would eliminate the horrible noise that the current buses make and they would also be cleaner and better,” said Pedro Uribe Mejia 11th grade student at TCS.

Passengers suggest that busses should be quieter and bigger because of very high passenger demand, especially at rush hours. Implementing new technologies to improve the quality of life of taxpayers would be interesting for the city.

“Public buses suck in the city and new technologies would help everyone change this mindset,” Carmen Alicia Anaya, frequent bus user said.