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Given a choice, few passengers would willingly board Tijuana鈥檚 rag-tag fleet of multi-colored buses that crowd the city鈥檚 major thoroughfares. Riders complain they鈥檙e old, inefficient, slow, uncomfortable 鈥� and expensive. They say that service can be spotty, unsafe, and at rush hour overcrowded.

Now, after years of false starts, Tijuana is moving forward on a major overhaul of its public transportation system, often criticized as serving political interests rather than its 1 million daily users. Next fall, a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system is expected to start service to some 300,000 passengers a day, the first step in a plan that aims to modernize public transportation in the entire city.

Passengers will pay through Smart Cards, and for a single fare of about 14 pesos 鈥� less than a dollar 鈥� they鈥檒l be able to transfer without extra charge. The service will be safer, cheaper, faster, and more comfortable, city officials say, with stations offering free internet service. The system will create new economic zones along the way, they hope, as people invest in shops, restaurants and other businesses.

鈥淚t will transform the city,鈥� said Alonso L贸pez Sep煤lveda, the man who now heads up Sistema Integral De Transporte Tijuana, SITT, a semi-autonomous municipal agency that is spearheading the creation of Tijuana鈥檚 BRT.

BRTs are bus systems conceived as above-ground metro systems adapted to meet the needs of the cities they serve. They typically include such features as stations where passengers pay before boarding, a centralized control and monitoring system, and dedicated lanes or routes that allow buses to avoid congestion of city streets.

The heart of the Tijuana system will be a 23-mile route that runs from the San Ysidro border to the eastern part of the city and back. Known as La Ruta Troncal, or the trunk route, it will run down Avenida Revoluci贸n, to the R铆o Zone, and down the V铆a Rapida, highways that flank the Tijuana River channel. Planners say it will connect the city鈥檚 center, with its restaurants, shops, cultural offerings, to the sprawling working-class neighborhoods of eastern Tijuana.

The trunk route would be fed by a system of feeder routes reaching into dozens of neighborhoods across the city.

The new system is being designed with 45 stations, including two major terminals, one at the eastern end on Bulevar Insurgentes and another near the border in downtown Tijuana. The city is planning a bridge linking Tijuana's border area to the downtown terminal. Along other parts of the route, the project includes eight new pedestrian bridges, and the rebuilding of seven others.

This is a solution that can greatly improve the mobility of Tijuana鈥檚 residents, in a way that is much less costly than a metro-type system,鈥� said Luis Felipe Siqueiros, a Guadalujara-based transportation consultant who has been advising the city on the new system. 鈥淚 think the city is taking a big step forward with this project.

According to the World Resources Institute, a non-governmental research group based in Washington, D.C., Tijuana will join close to 200 cities worldwide with BRT systems, with more than 60 percent of the ridership in Latin America, where the first systems were launched in the 1970s. Starting in 2003 with Le贸n, Guanajuato, several Mexican cities now have adopted BRT systems, including Mexico City, Guadalajara and Chihuahua.

鈥淲e haven鈥檛 reinvented the wheel here,鈥� said L贸pez. 鈥淲e are implementing a system adapted to Tijuana. The transportation companies have been told that it鈥檚 worth it; it will eliminate a lot of headaches.鈥�

Planners say Bus Rapid Transit can become a key connector for Tijuana, where much of the growth of recent years has been channeled into sprawling housing developments at the city鈥檚 edge. 鈥淭his creates great mobility challenges,鈥� said Fernando Paez, director of transport systems for Embarq Mexico, a program of the World Resources Institute.

For Erik Garc铆a, a 22-year-old pharmacy student at the Autonomous University of Baja California, traveling between his home in Tijuana鈥檚 Fundadores area and his classes on the school鈥檚 campus near the Otay Mesa border takes three hours a day.

鈥淭here ought to be a schedule, that the drivers would have to meet, not just when they feel like it,鈥� said Garc铆a, who often opts for more expensive collective taxis to save time, spending about 50 pesos a day, or more than $3.

At rush hour last Wednesday night, dozens of buses and vans vied for passengers at La Cinco y Diez, the chaotic intersection of two major thoroughfares. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the worst, horrible; 90 percent of the drivers don鈥檛 know how to drive,鈥� said Cristi谩n Robles, a 24-year-old maquiladora worker preparing to board a public bus after being dropped off by his company.

Tijuana鈥檚 mass transit system today consists of private companies that operate under a municipal concession, with many vehicles being used school buses and old public transit buses that are brought to Mexico. The city has 3,600 buses operated by a dozen companies that travel 120 routes, said Paez, of the World Resources Institute.

鈥淭ijuana has many transportation companies that compete with each other,鈥� said Siqueiros, the consultant.

The city also has a large fleet of collective taxis 鈥� 33 transportation groups representing 127 routes, Paez said, but these will continue their operations for the time being, serving the city鈥檚 numerous colonias, L贸pez said. 鈥淭he collective taxis would be incorporated in a second phase,鈥� L贸pez said. 鈥淏it by bit, the government will create routes, integrating them into the system.鈥�

Launching the first phase is costing close to $72 million to build bridges, stations, roadways, ramps, staircases, and a fiber optic system, with the city and federal government sharing the expense. L贸pez said an additional $84 million would be spent on 546 buses, paid for by the city鈥檚 12 private transportation companies, which will be in charge of jointly operating the system.

Getting the buy-in of the local transportation companies, many of them controlled by unions affiliated with political parties, has involved extensive negotiations with the transportation companies and Mayor Jorge Astiazar谩n鈥檚 administration. To date, seven of the 12 companies with municipal concessions have signed letters of intent agreeing to be part of the mega-company that will operate the new system, a city spokesman said.

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune