Transmetro

• January 1999: Mayor Fritz Garcia Gallont offers to implement the Transmetro project, unfortunately it doesn't happen within his administration.
• January 2004: Alvaro Arzu, after being elected as mayor for a second term, confirmed that he considered the Transmetro as a solution to alleviate congestion in the city.
• June 2004: The city council says the first phase would be completed by the end of the year.
• December 2004: City council announces that they would push the opening date to late 2005.
• June 2006: City council pledges to do its best effort to complete phase 1 by the end of the year.
• December 2006: The opening date is pushed to January 2007.
• January 2007: Due to delays in completing from infrastructure, the opening date is pushed by one month to February 2007.
• February 3, 2007: Phase one, renamed "Eje Sur" (South line), begins operating in the city.
• August 14, 2010: The second phase opens, renamed "Eje central" also known as "Corredor Central" (Central line, or also known as Central corridor).[2]
• December 2012: A short line begins to operate in the Historic Downtown aka "Centro Historico"
• April 2014: A new line begins to operate to serve Zone 18 from the Atlantida neighbourhood to the Downtown core.
• 2014: Construction begins for the northern line, later renamed line 6 after the Zone in which it terminates from the downtown core.
• April 2015: Line 6 (Eje Norte), begins service.[3]
• January 2016: A new short line opens to serve the Racecourse neighbourhood to the downtown core[4]
• 2016: All lines were renamed after the zones they operate in or serve. Eje Sur was renamed Line 12 as it mainly operates in zone 12, Corredor Central was renamed Line 13 as it connects Zone 13 with the Downtown Core, Cnetro Historico was renamed Line 1 as it serves the Zone 1 Downtown, Eje Norte was renamed Line 6 as it terminates in Zone 6, Eje Nor-oriente is renamed Line 18 as it terminates in Zone 18, Hipodromo was renamed Line 2 as it serves Zone 2.
• 2017: Line 21 begins operating as a pilot project to improve transportation to and from the USAC University campus. It had not yet been changed to a permanent route but is marked on the map as the pink line.
• 2019: Line 7 begins to operate with some stations still under construction. Line 21 is made permanent.
• 2020: All Line 7 stations are open to the public. In early 2020, the new mayor announces plans to phase out cash-fares.

Transmetro bus entering a station

Transmetro bus operating on Line 13

Line 12 starts from Zone 1 in Guatemala City, it runs through the Civic Centre, Bolivar Avenue, Trebol Station, Raul Aguilar Batres Way and finally terminating at Centra Sur, in Zone 12 of neighbouring Villa Nueva city.

The second line to be opened, Corridor Central or Eje Central, runs through zones 4, 9, and 13 of Guatemala City. The buses are similar to the ones on Line 12, except for the Bi-articulated buses. The change in bus types was done to allow the line to travel through the historic centre as the streets are narrower compared to those of the CA1.

Another interesting difference between Line 12 and Line 13 is that, when Line 13 was still a proposal, the developer promised to revitalize the areas where the Line would eventually operate. This revitalization included new monuments, better sidewalks, improvement of street vendor spaces, and others.

Line 13 connects with Line 12 at "Plaza Barrios" and "El Calvario", creating seamless connections to the downtown and the southern areas of the city. Stations on this line are equipped with accessibility features such as braille that tells users the name of the stations and the connecting lines.

This line, as mentioned earlier, runs through the historic downtown, this means that during its journey it will pass by popular landmarks of the city such as the Torre del Reformador, the Acueducto de Pinula, the Bank of Guatemala, Civic Centre, and 6th Avenue, a popular pedestrian-only section of the city.

Line 13 was expanded to service further into zones 9 and 10, which due to road limitations forced it to be broken up into 2 segments. The ones listed above are part of the first segment and the ones below are part of the second segment.

Line 1 works in mainly in Zone 1 of Guatemala's Downtown. This line was built soon after Line 13 began operations. The main goal of this line was to make the historic centre more accessible through safe and reliable public transportation. This line travels from 3rd Street in Zone 1, towards 18th Street in Zone 1, passing through 5th Street and 8th Street. This line started service on December 19, 2012.[6]

L1 Transmetro departing Tipografia Station.

Line 2 was another line that had some private sector support, the goal was to increase ease of travel between the Hipodromo district and the historic district. The colour for this route is similar to the one for Line 1, as they serve very similar areas. Line 2 also has an express service to provide direct connections between Zone 1, and the UMG university campus. The express service does not serve any other stations.

L6 or Eje Norte, runs from 18th Street in Zone 1 to Cementos Progreso Stadium in Guatemala's Zone 6, on its journey, it passes by the popular Colon Park (Parque Colon). Its stations began construction in October 2014 and the route was fully functional by April 25 of 2015.[7] A trip from one end to the other takes an average of 50 minutes.[3]

As its name in Spanish describes, this line travels to the North West corner of the city. Departing from Plaza Barrios-FEGUA Station at 18th Street in Zone 1, ti travels through very important, high traffic areas and sites of interest like Colon Park. This line began operating on April 25, 2014 and continues to be under construction specially in the northern segment of the route to improve road conditions and exclusive traffic lane. This line also has an express service which bypasses most stations and travels directly to Paraiso Station, stopping at San Rafael Station on the way. Geographically, Paraiso is further than Atlantida, making it the northernmost station in the system. In early 2020, Transmetro completed the newest terminal station at Atlantida, renaming the terminal to "Centra Atlantida[8]". This new terminal also provides direct transfers to local Transurbano Routes in the 300 Series.

Line 21 started as a pilot project to measure sustainability, and conduct a user needs assessment for service to the USAC university campus,[9] in the southern end of the city. The project began as an Express service between the temporary Trebolito Station, which was close to the Trebol Station, and a temporary Station at the municipal office in Zone 21. Th service has since become a permanent line which provides easier access to the university campus from Line 12. In 2019, the service was complemented by the opening of the Line 7 service which provides students with options for westbound service. The line is named after its southern terminus, located in Zone 21.

Line 7 is the newest Transmetro line, it began service in late 2019 and has now been fully enabled as a functioning line.[10] Line seven is intended to cover more suburban service, as well as provide more direct access to the USAC university campus. The line travel between Colon Station in Zone 1, through Zone 7, Zone 11, and terminates at the new USAC Periferico Station. Along the way, it makes direct transfers to Line 6 and 18, while also providing walking connections to Line 1 and 12.