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Bogotá readies for 2028 as 50% of Metro Line 1 nears completion
The Colombian capital is betting on a multibillion-dollar transport and sanitation overhaul, with Metro Line 1 set to open in two years and a wastewater plant to follow.
How we reported this
Bogotá’s long-awaited Metro Line 1 is halfway built and on track to open in 2028, making it the city’s first operational metro line. As of March 2025, the project was 50% complete, according to the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá.
Facts and figures behind the city’s transit expansion
The Metro Line 1 project forms part of a broader push to modernise Bogotá’s ageing transport network. Metro Line 2, with an investment of $3.8 billion, will add a 16-kilometre route, 15.1 km of it underground, and 11 stations. Construction on that line runs from 2024 through 2031, according to Invest in Bogotá.
Meanwhile, the Regiotram de Occidente (Western Commuter Rail) broke ground in December 2021. This first inter-municipal electric train is designed to connect the municipalities of Facatativá, Madrid, Funza and Mosquera with Bogotá in about 45 minutes, reported the Mayor’s Office and the Colombian government trade promotion agency.
Above ground, two road-corridor projects, Norte ALO and ALO Centro, are planned as four-lane routes intended to ease congestion at key entry and exit points. The scope includes widening Autopista Norte and Carrera Séptima, a major north-south thoroughfare.
Sanitation and job creation
Bogotá’s largest water-treatment project, a new wastewater plant costing $1.5 billion, is designed to treat 70% of the city’s wastewater and 100% of the wastewater from the neighbouring municipality of Soacha. Construction is expected to generate more than 3,000 direct jobs, according to the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce.
Both the transport and sanitation programmes rely on blended financing. The Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and national funds have all contributed to different phases. The metropolitan transit authority reports that each line is progressing under separate contracts, with Metro Line 1’s civil works proceeding on schedule.
Residents and commuters can expect the first metro trains to roll in 2028, with Line 2 following before the end of the decade. The Regiotram and road-widening projects will add further capacity, while the treatment plant seeks to address a long-standing environmental deficit in the Bogotá River basin.