Colombia gives green light to US$500mn Regiotram de Occidente and other commuter trains

The Colombian government gave the green light to advance certain rail projects through a decree issued by the ministries of environment and transport, which will help unblock projects such as the US$543mn Regiotram de Occidente commuter train.

The decree, which exempts projects from the environmental licensing process, applies only to rail transport that uses clean energy, especially electric trains that connect to mass transport systems in urban areas and that run along existing rail corridors, environment minister Susana Muhamad told reporters.

Although these types of projects will no longer require an environmental license, they will be subject to environmental management guidelines.

The first project to be unblocked will be the Regiotram de Occidente given that last year regulator ANLA rejected the environmental license for the initiative, which is in the hands of the Férrea de Occidente consortium.

Other projects set to benefit from the decree are the Regiotram del Norte, the Río train and the Valle train as well as projects in Medellín, Cali and the Bogotá savanna, which meet the requirements.

Transport minister William Camargo said these types of projects guarantee resilience, adaptation to climate change and generate opportunities to cut emissions, contributing to the energy transition and more efficient transport.