El Tren Metropolitano del Valle de Aburrá y los efectos externos

One of the main characteristics of the urban public service train is its capacity to produce benefits that overcome the costs of using this system, that is, its potentiality to produce indirect effects. The Metro of the Aburrá Valley falls into this trend. This article illustrates, not only the direct benefits but also the externalities derived from the construction, operation, and employment of the Metro. These aspects are related to the decrease of traffic jams in in-city streets, the reduced number of accidents, the decrease of contamination and the cost of road maintenance, the improvement of urban landscape, the development of the community in terms of protection and ownership of public goods and the increase in price of real property in the zone of influence of the train stations and complementary works.