Quito Trolleybus

Contact: Bill Cowart
ICF Consulting

ICF Consulting
Quito Municipality
Moving the Economy case study

The Quito (Ecuador) Trolébus started in 1996 with electric buses on an 11-kilometre route of bus-only lanes on city streets, largely following the central avenue of the linear city. It has now been extended to a 16-kilometre route. The Trolébus system has been enormously successful on numerous fronts, with substantial mobility, environmental, economic, and financial benefits to the city and users. Quito's 1.5 million inhabitants live in a narrow mountain valley located 2,800 meters up in the Andes Mountains. Typical workers earn only $US 45 monthly, and automobile ownership is around ten percent, so private buses serve about 70 percent and the public Trolébus line about ten percent of commuters. The 59 (originally 41) bus stops are large, Plexiglas-enclosed mini-stations, allowing operations similar to a rail system, with payment of fares prior to boarding, and platform level with the bus floor allowing rapid boarding through multiple doors. While original expectations were for 70,000 passengers daily, weekday usage now surpasses 230,000 patrons. The users have been the biggest beneficiaries, with fast, direct, reliable service providing an alternative to standard buses stuck on congested streets. The clean electric buses have also had environmental benefits, as buses from the large private bus fleet average 17 years old and operate with polluting diesel engines.

A similar busway system on arterial streets had been implemented in Curitiba, Brazil a number of years before. Quito's was the first significant replication of the Curitiba system, and they did so without any of the land use, environmental, or other supporting measures based on a political hegemony that made Curitiba unique (and that had led many to say that Curitiba could not be replicated elsewhere). The original system cost only $US 57 million, including the infrastructure, stations, power system, and articulated buses. These up-front costs are very low for a high capacity transit system, making it affordable even in one of South America's poorest nations. The fare of $US 0.20 is sufficient to cover virtually all system operating costs. Since its implementation, a number of other cities in Latin America (São Paulo, Bogotá, Lima, etc.) and elsewhere have jumped onto the bus rapid transit bandwagon. Over a dozen North American cities are currently implementing busways, although it must be pointed out that a number of these are on separate rights-of-way or limited access highways, reducing many of the benefits that Quito demonstrated by re-claiming city streets and arterials for bus rapid mass transit.