Transmetro Barranquilla-Soledad: challenges for metropolitan management of transport projects in a context of territorial unbalances

Abstract

This article addresses the management process of the Integrated MassTransit System (SITM) Transmetro (Barranquilla and Soledad, Colombia),analyzing three relationships: between government levels, betweenmunicipalities and between the public and private sector, based on a documentaryreview of the regulatory framework, interviews with the projectstakeholders and content analysis of press articles. Findings suggestthat this application of the national SITM program, despite its attempt toovercome the management obstacles presented in the first versions of thesystems (like Bogota’s Transmilenio and Pereira’s Megabus), has had toface more structural problems like the territorial inequities between themetropolitan nucleus and the metropolized municipality, which hindersthe process of metropolitan management of large-scale urban projects.