The Metro Network and the Institute of Recreation and Sports of Bogotá, have joined forces to cultivate a sense of belonging, identity and culture around Bogota's First Metro line.
On its 485th anniversary, the city receives a unique and meaningful present: the "School Wagon of the First Line of the Bogota Metro." This educational and playful space allows children, teenagers, and their families to explore a Metro Wagon, learn about the evolution of transportation, and experience the interior of a station within the new transportation system being developed by the city's current Administration.
Mayor Claudia López, along with Metro Company Manager Leonidas Alvarez and Secretary of Mobility Deyanira Ávila, celebrated the launching of this learning space, which aims to foster a civic culture around the modern system. "The Metro's construction is 25% complete; however, it's equally important to cultivate a civic culture surrounding the Metro. This civic culture holds more significance than the construction of the Metro itself," commented the Mayor Claudia Lopez.
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During the wagon's inauguration this Thursday 10 August, the Mayor emphasized that there is no gift that Bogota's citizens have desired more than the Metro. "After four years of planning, overcoming the challenges posed by the pandemic, formalizing contracts in mid-2020, conducting studies and designs, and recently commencing the construction of the viaduct, we have reached this milestone," stated Mayor Claudia López.
Furthermore, with evident enthusiasm, she emphasized that this educational area signifies a step towards the realization of Bogota's first Metro line. "I am genuinely thrilled to witness the tangible progress and see these ideas come to life for children, teenagers, and all the residents of our city. It fills me with pride that this stands as one of Bogotá's gifts on its 485th anniversary”.
This initiative marks one of the initial strides in civic culture being cultivated by the city Administration in conjunction with the Metro Network. Its aim is to initiate and nurture a sense of ownership, responsibility, and empowerment regarding the Bogota Metro.
"Today, we take yet another leap forward toward the long-anticipated dream, that cherished gift for Bogota which is the Metro. We inaugurate the Metro School Wagon of the first Metro line in an exceptional location, adjacent to our Simon Bolivar Park – a space dedicated to Bogota's youth, who will undoubtedly teach us more about its use," the leader affirmed.
To access the Metro School Wagon facilities situated on the park's eastern side, designated for children, visitors should enter through Carrera 60 #63-65, adjacent to the Salitre Recreational and Sports Park. Here, they will encounter one of the Metro wagons, providing an accurate representation of the system set to traverse Bogota's streets from March 2028.
In this tweet, the Mayor talks about the Bogotá Metro School Car:
Abrimos el #VagónEscuelaMetro en el Parque de los niños y las niñas, para que estudiantes de todos los colegios aprendan cómo funciona, cómo cuidarlo y conservarlo.
— Claudia López Hernández (@ClaudiaLopez) August 10, 2023
Empezamos a construir la cultura ciudadana Metro, al mismo tiempo que avanzamos en su construcción física; la… pic.twitter.com/zZlqml2eNA
The experience is designed so that the visitors enjoy six (6) moments:
1. Daydreaming: In this phase, visitors will engage in the exercise of putting themselves in other's place, to comprehend that sustainable mobility is already a reality, and that it is a commitment to build civic culture around the Metro.
2. Interconnected Bogota: In this room, they will play and learn about multimodality as the key characteristic of Bogota's public transportation system. This will be complemented by the arrival of the Metro, which it's going to become the spine of this extensive network.
3. Our first line: Through the presentation of Bogota’s multimodal scheme and the layout of the first metro line and its stations, they will be provided with a general overview of the system’s operation and the means of transportation that compose it.
4. A day in the Metro: Experience inside the scale model of one of the carts of the School Wagon. This moment will bring them closer to understanding the importance of respecting diversity and equity, as well as the construction of empathy. This space aims to generate ownership and care for public assets.
5. Metro Club – Here, they will engage in a reflection focused on what it means to Bogotá and it's citizens to enter the club of major global cities that have their own Metro system.
6. Imagining: In this reflexive space about civic culture, participants will be invited to share what they expect of this new form of mobility, how they feel with this new Metro and the minimum agreements they would be willing to do with the city to make this dream possible for the citizens that have been waiting for decades and that is a reality today.
The opening of this School Wagon becomes a space to generate ownership, care and a sense of belonging for Bogota's metro system among citizens. In partnership with think tanks, observatories, schools and universities, this ludic hall will become a space for continious learning of the progress, the operation of the system, and the role of the citizen as a passenger", stated Leónidas Narváez, general manager of the Metro company.
Opening hours
From Tuesday to Friday, between 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, the School Wagon can be visited free of charge by students of any school (public or private), with prior registration at the email adress parquedelosninos@idrd.gov.co.
During the weekend’s, children and teenagers can visit accompanied by an adult, the visits will ocurr in four shifts:
- Two in the morning: From 9:00 am to 10:45 am, and from 10:45 am to 12:30 pm.
- Two in the afternoon: From 2:00 pm to 3:45 pm, and from 3:45 pm to 4:45 pm.
The admission at these times will be by order of arrival, every 15 minutes and in groups of 15 people until full capacity is reached.
Manufacture of Bogota's Metro wagons in China.
The wagons for the Metro of Bogota, as well as this School Wagon in real size, are being manufactured in China. Each train will have six wagons, the capacity for 1800 passengers, and an average commercial speed of 42.5 km/ hour. Initially, they will operate with an interval of 140 seconds and will be able to circulate in both directions, from North to South and from South to North, on separate tracks.
Leonidas Narváez, general manager of the EMB, stated that "The first train will arrive in the capital city by 2025, and by that time, we must have 4000 lnear meters of constructed viaduct, which will allow us to make testing operations. In September 2027, the system’s trial run will commence. All of this to ensure that commercial operations begin with 30 trains in March 2028.
