Skip to main content

Latin America ‘needs major investment in mass transit’

Latin America needs to invest heavily in mass transport services to improve living standards in urban areas, according to Norman Anderson, CEO of US-based consulting firm CG/LA Infrastructure. "Unless there is mobility, it's hard to imagine cities being successful, cities being creative, so one of the things we emphasised, and we think is really important, is the whole mobility issue," Anderson said in an interview. In its most recent report on strategic infrastructure projects in Latin America, CG/L
June 10, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Latin America needs to invest heavily in mass transport services to improve living standards in urban areas, according to Norman Anderson, CEO of US-based consulting firm 7796 CG/LA Infrastructure.

"Unless there is mobility, it's hard to imagine cities being successful, cities being creative, so one of the things we emphasised, and we think is really important, is the whole mobility issue," Anderson said in an interview.

In its most recent report on strategic infrastructure projects in Latin America, CG/LA put three metro projects among the top 10. They are Bogota's US$3.6 billion metro project, Panama City's US$2.8 billion line 3, and Metro de Quito's US$1.5 billion second phase.

"Those are three cities that are desperate for mobility because they have horrible traffic issues," Anderson said, ahead of CG/LA's infrastructure conference in Cartagena, Colombia.

According to the 5982 Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Latin American countries are expected to invest some US$40 billion in metro projects by 2025.

Some other key projects in the region are the construction of line 3 and line 6 for Chilean capital Santiago's subway, the expansion of Brazil's São Paulo metro line 2, the expansion of Argentina's Buenos Aires line H, and the expansion of Mexico City's line 12.

In a recent report, CG/LA identified strategic urban mass transit projects worth US$14.1 billion.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Washington, DC, tops list of gridlocked US cities
    August 26, 2015
    The 2015 urban mobility scorecard for the US, published jointly by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and Inrix, indicates that urban areas of all sizes are experiencing the challenges seen in the early 2000s and population, jobs and therefore congestion are increasing. The US economy has regained nearly all of the nine million jobs lost during the recession and the total congestion problem is larger than the pre-recession levels. Cities of all sizes are experiencing the challenges last seen before t
  • Xerox kicks off ITS America San Jose in high gear with Wheels & Things
    May 26, 2016
    “Integrated Mobility. Transportation Redefined.” is the overall theme for ITS America 2016 San Jose, a new show representing this transformative moment in intelligent transportation. According to ITS America, the theme envisions our world tomorrow with integrated mobility systems turning our assumptions upside down, forcing us to reconsider the notions of how people travel and how goods ship.
  • Contracts awarded for Riyadh six-line metro
    July 30, 2013
    The government in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has awarded three engineering and construction packages for its six-line metro project. The contracts, worth around US$22 billion, have been awarded to a consortium of the US's Bechtel, Germany's Siemens, the regional Consolidated Contractors Company and Saudi Arabia's Almabani; a consortium led by Italy's Ansaldo STS; Spain's Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), France's Alstom and South Korea's Samsung C&T.
  • Changes at top of Kapsch TrafficCom
    April 4, 2025
    Fifth-generation family member Samuel Kapsch joins board as COO