Mobility in Latin America: the digital shift toward inclusive and seamless transport

Across Latin America, public transportation is more than a way to move — it is the backbone of economic activity, social inclusion, and daily life for hundreds of millions of citizens. As urban populations expand and cash-based systems reach their limits, cities from Colombia to Ecuador are turning to digital innovation to keep people moving efficiently and fairly. 

The state of mobility in Latin America 

Large cities such as Bogotá, Mexico City, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Quito face mounting pressure from rapid population growth, urban sprawl, and aging transport infrastructure. Bogotá, home to over eight million people, relies on buses and its BRT network for more than 80% of daily trips. Mexico City, with over nine million residents, sees roughly 70% of travel made by public transport across metro, BRT, and bus systems. In Santiago and Buenos Aires, expanding urban areas and rising commuter demand are pushing authorities to modernize ageing networks and improve efficiency. Meanwhile, Quito—home to nearly three million residents—still depends heavily on buses for most daily journeys, even as new metro lines and digital fare systems begin reshaping mobility across the city. 

The region’s biggest challenge is cash. Around half of all fare payments are still made in cash, creating inefficiencies, revenue leakage, and barriers to digital inclusion. Governments in Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, and others are responding with initiatives to digitalize public services and reduce cash dependence, often in partnership with private innovators. 

Key barriers to progress 

The barriers to progress in LATAM transport systems are well-known:  

• Fragmented fare systems: Many operators still run isolated, closed-loop systems, each requiring a separate card or app. This creates friction for users and inefficiency for authorities.  

• Cash dependency: Millions of unbanked or underbanked citizens rely on physical currency, leaving them excluded from digital services and making fare management costly and opaque.  

• Aging infrastructure: Legacy turnstiles, outdated software, and low-speed validation systems slow down access, increase maintenance costs, and frustrate riders.  

• Limited interoperability: Closed systems can’t easily integrate new payment methods such as QR codes, mobile wallets, or contactless cards, forcing cities to rebuild from scratch rather than evolve 

Governments across Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Chile are promoting financial inclusion and cashless economies, supported by institutions such as the World Bank and the IDB. Private partners like O-CITY play a crucial role in turning these goals into scalable, working systems. 

Building interoperable mobility 

For decades, cities relied on proprietary, closed-loop cards that couldn’t communicate with other systems or financial institutions. So how does interoperability can be achieved and what is it exactly?   

The term exists for quite a while and was defined by Corinne Mulley and John D Nelson in Journal of Transport Geography in 1999 as “is the ability of two, or more, transport systems to operate effectively and efficiently together to fulfil consumers’ requirements of a transport system”. Or, alternatively “Interoperability is the ability to make a seamless journey between the origin and destination”.   

For public operators, interoperability lays the foundation for a more connected, efficient, and passenger-centric mobility ecosystems. It also implies lots of benefits, which are not limited to:  

• Accessibility and seamless journey: Introduction of interoperable transportation allows commuters to enjoy smooth journeys across multiple modes and networks using just one payment method, for example open-loop EMV card.  

• Operational efficiency: Additionally, public operators can better coordinate schedules, removing loaded routes, introduce smart fares and segmentations and improve fare collection.  
• Nation-wide ecosystem establishment: Interoperability within city can provide base for expanding the ecosystem over other cities, supporting tourism and attractiveness of public transport.  

Open-loop technology allow riders to use any EMV cards, QR or local card unifying and simplifying the payments for citizens and tourists alike. Account-based approach allows to go even further. Users create their own single account, link a card to it and utilise mobile wallet, biometrics or even facial recognition to pay for services.  

Creating an interoperable environment requires expertise and modern technology, scalable and comprehensive to deliver seamless journey experience at any level and scale.   

O-CITY’s AFC open-loop platform integrates operators, merchants, banks, and commuters on one digital backbone, bridging mobility with finance. Cities can upgrade rather than replace their infrastructure, cutting costs and deployment time. Cloud hosting ensures real-time settlement, fraud prevention, and transparent reporting — all essential for sustainable urban systems. 

Regional examples 

Barbados – Beyond mainland Latin America, island economies are following suit. Barbados is a Caribbean island that comprises 11 regions and 102 cities and has become a top tourist spot. The Barbados Transport Board, the entity responsible for bus transportation, decided to modernise the transportation system (with around 250 public and 500 private buses in service around the island), making it more accessible and convenient. O-CITY partnered with Transpay to modernize the island’s public bus network through an account-based and open-loop solution. The project introduced QR-code payments, top-up kiosks, and a mobile ticketing app that lets residents and tourists plan routes, track expenses, and pay seamlessly across all buses. Barbados shows how even smaller, tourism-driven markets can lead the shift toward cashless, accessible transport. 

Bogotá, Colombia – Home to eight million people, Bogotá depends on its TransMilenio BRT network, which carries nearly three million passengers daily. For years, the city relied on the closed-loop Tu Llave card, which required kiosks for top-ups and offered limited flexibility. 

burdened by high maintenance and slow transactions. With the recent publication of the unified payment regulations for public transportation in Bogotá, the path is paved toward a new technological leap.  

The city formalized the process with District Decree 338 of 2025, which mandates the District to design, implement, operate, and maintain an interoperable Level 4 collection system. According to the mobility portal, the SIR will serve as the central integration layer between TransMilenio, the future Metro Line 1, and other transportation modes. For the first time, Bogotá will have a unified payment platform that will allow each mode of transportation to share the same collection infrastructure, while users will be able to validate their payment with their preferred payment method.  

Guayaquil and Quito, Ecuador – Ecuador’s mobility modernization began with a clear goal: to drive financial inclusion through everyday transport. BPC introduced O-CITY to Metro Quito and Guayaquil, integrating transport systems with the banking sector through EMV-ready open-loop payments. 

The new prepaid transit card, issued by Banco Pichincha and powered by O-CITY’s cloud technology, lets commuters pay for rides while automatically joining the formal financial ecosystem. The card also works beyond transport, at retail POS and online and can be upgraded to a full bank account once users build trust.  

For operators and authorities, the system provides real-time analytics, fraud management, and transparent ridership data, helping guide smarter policy decisions. In a country once dominated by cash, O-CITY created a unified, inclusive, and efficient digital ecosystem linking mobility and finance. 

LATAM’s path to seamless transit 

Latin America’s mobility future is digital, inclusive, and open. With more than 85 percent of the population living in cities, the pressure to modernize public transport continues to rise. Yet, as projects in Ecuador, Colombia, and Barbados show, real progress doesn’t require disruption. It comes from upgrading what already exists and linking mobility with finance. 

Research by Visa suggests that easier digital payments could increase public transport use by over 25 percent. Governments in Mexico, Chile, and Argentina are now exploring similar paths, with public–private partnerships emerging as key drivers of Mobility-as-a-Service across the region. 

Open-loop, interoperable platforms like O-CITY offer a practical path forward that is reducing disruption, improving transparency, and turning everyday travel into a foundation for smarter, more sustainable cities.