![Buenos Aires city bus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Buenos_Aires_city_bus.jpg)
''Colectivo'' (
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
: collective
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
) is the name given in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
,
Colombia,
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
and
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
to a type of
public transportation
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
vehicle, especially those of Argentina's
capital city
A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...
,
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
. The name comes from ''vehículos de transporte colectivo'' ("vehicles for collective transport"), reflecting their origin as
shared taxi
Shared may refer to:
* Sharing
* Shared ancestry or Common descent
* Shared care
* Shared-cost service
* Shared decision-making in medicine
* Shared delusion, various meanings
* Shared government
* Shared intelligence or collective intellige ...
s.
[The design evolution of the colectivo]
Article with much information and many photographs, accessed 10 April 2010
When they first appeared in the 1920s, ''colectivos'' were small
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
es built out of smaller vehicle
chassis (cars, vans, etc.) and, later, out of
truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...
chassis (1950–1990, by
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...
Argentina),
[ not specifically designed for the transportation of people, and were decorated with unique hand-painted drawings ('']fileteado
''Fileteado'' () is a type of artistic drawing and lettering, with stylised lines and flowered, climbing plants, typically used in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
It is used to adorn all kinds of beloved objects: signs, taxis, lorries and even the old ...
'') that gave each unit a distinct flavor.
They steadily evolved and grew larger, but kept their picturesque style until the 1990s, when the urban fleet was modernized with standard rear-engined bus units.[
During most of their history, tickets were sold by the driver, who would drive off as soon as all passengers had boarded, selling tickets while driving.
]
History
1928–1950
Taxi-bus, Chevrolet Double Phaeton, creation of the "líneas"
In the 1900s Argentina was the "Granary of the World", one of the largest world food producers and exporters, and a wealthy country. The streets of prosperous Buenos Aires (with 2 million inhabitants) soon filled with cars.
Commercial relations with the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
(mainly trade in meat and grain), also brought a myriad of investors and enterprises in the early years of the century, including Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
's first metro system, cars, train
In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often ...
s, tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
ways, taxi
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choic ...
s and public buses.
On 24 September 1928, the first taxi-bus ran through Buenos Aires. Later called "colectivo", it was based on an Argentine-manufactured longer-wheelbase Chevrolet Superior K-series Double Phaeton called " Especial Argentino". It provided public transportation throughout Buenos Aires on pre-defined itineraries and stops, charging a low price for each passenger.
Chevrolet started manufacturing a truck chassis adaptable to passenger transport. By the 1930s the size of the colectivo had increased from five to up to a dozen seats, and the Chevrolet line had become widely used, with bodies made by local companies. This style was kept until the 1970s and 1980s, by which time the units had twenty seats plus cramped room for many standing passengers.
During its heyday, drivers deliberately challenged the "real" public buses and electric tramways, parking near them at the busiest stations and driving close to them during the day to pick up their passengers. Soon people started to prefer these ''colectivos'', which displaced the original buses and trams.
With time the routes were formalized, and owners of ''colectivos'' joined together into lines that operated standard routes, distinguished by numbers displayed on the ''colectivos''. Since several lines often traversed the same roads, companies began to adopt different colors to distinguish their units more clearly than by the number alone. Line 60, a particularly well-known line with a long route, had its beginnings in this era.
1950–1990
Mercedes-Benz truck and buses
After World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
and during the 1950s Argentine industry started to develop again, but the country's public transport system was inadequate for the new era: practically no modernization had taken place since the early years, and the suburban railway system was not sufficient to meet the rising demands of the population.
Mercedes-Benz moved into the ''colectivo'' market: in 1951 the then Daimler-Benz AG set up in Argentina its first factories outside Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
: one in the town of San Martín, near Buenos Aires, and another in González Catán
González Catán is a city located in La Matanza Partido, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. The city is the second-largest by area in the county (52 km²), and the second most-populous. The city is located near the southwestern end of the Grea ...
.
Mercedes released updated local colectivo chassis, a modified L 3500 truck chassis – LO 3500, OP 3500, LO 311, LO 312, LO 911 (the stands for Omnibus) – with a separately manufactured body fitted later by different coachbuilders. In less than a decade the output was 6,500 units a year. In 1963 Mercedes built the 10,000nd colectivo (model LO 312), and continued with other models, such as L 1112 (120 HP), LA 1112 (all-wheel traction) and the L 1114. The Mercedes-Benz colectivos had truck powerplants, a diesel engine with power transmitted to the rear axle by a five-speed constant-mesh gearbox.
All the lines progressively adopted these units and, from 1950 to 1990, all colectivos were eventually Mercedes-Benz models.
1990s to the present
Omnibus. Blurring of the tradition of the colectivo
In 1987 El Detalle, one of the bus body suppliers of Mercedes-Benz, started competing with its former chassis provider, investing in low price and modern urban buses, with cheaper Deutz engines. That same year model El Detalle OA-101 was launched. This model was rear-engined and had pneumatic suspension, providing smoother rides and more inside space.
Mercedes-Benz responded the following year with the rear-engined OH-1314, but that was considered "the death of the Colectivo", certainly the end of an era.
In 1989 the last truck-based colectivos, on the classic Mercedes-Benz chassis LO-1114, were assembled. Production had been discontinued the previous year.
During the 1990s some companies found it cheaper to switch to single-colored units, and a flurry of mergers and foldings changed the appearance of colectivos.
Nowadays, only the three-digit numbering and some of the routes survive from the traditional "líneas", ''fileteado
''Fileteado'' () is a type of artistic drawing and lettering, with stylised lines and flowered, climbing plants, typically used in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
It is used to adorn all kinds of beloved objects: signs, taxis, lorries and even the old ...
'' is rarely seen, the ''filigranas'' were lost, and some of the classic big details, such as the panoramic mirrors close to the driver's head, disappeared.
After 1995 automatic ticket machines made journeys safer, since drivers did not have to sell tickets and drive at the same time.
In 2005 Mercedes-Benz units accounted for about half of the buses in the city of Buenos Aires and its surroundings, with units built in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
(La Favorita, Eivar, Italbus, Bimet-Corwin, Galicia, CND, CEAP, Ugarte, etc.) and in Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
(Marcopolo, CAIO and others). The other half were El Detalle units and others such as Scania
Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne ...
, Volvo
The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
, Dimex, Zanello and very few Ferroni.
Most older units have been retired from service in Buenos Aires, as they are considered too dangerous and noisy for use in the fast-paced city. They were disposed of, or sent to smaller cities all over the country. Colectivos are usually retired only when they are too damaged to be repaired; some of them have “resuscitated” as fine motorhomes.
Description of the ''colectivo''
The Mercedes units were more sophisticated than the original ''taxi-bus'' but the body kept its artistic touches, preserving the original style of the ''colectivo''. This style was not influenced by the social class of the districts through which the ''colectivos'' journeyed. All the units of all the ''"líneas"'' shared these characteristics until the 1990s:
Multi-colored units
Decorators used many colorful combinations over the units' external body, helping identify each one of the ''líneas''. These eventually evolved into "corporate colors": when one company ran several lines, they painted buses on all lines in the same colors. Until the 1990s the ''fileteado'', individual to each bus, was maintained.
''Fileteados''
''Fileteado'' has been defined as: "art on wheels": full of colored ornaments and symmetries completed with poetic phrases, sayings and aphorisms, both humorous or roguish, emotional or philosophical".
The colectivos were where this art found its best canvas. Long, wide mirrors placed around the driver seat often had winding drawings and motifs that usually portrayed the driver's preferences in football, religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
and tango
Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...
.
The outside of the units was also painted with ''fileteado'' details, flower motifs, national flags
A national flag is a flag that represents and symbolizes a given nation. It is flown by the government of that nation, but usually can also be flown by its citizens. A national flag is typically designed with specific meanings for its colours a ...
, and football team banners. It was also very common to see phrases written down in complex fonts, usually at the back. These phrases were often ingenious pun
A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...
s or rhymes and became part of Argentine folklore. A simple example of a very common phrase is: ''Lo mejor que hizo la vieja es el pibe que maneja'' (loosely "The best thing my mum did was this bus-driving kid").
Other details
The units with a larger budget had more details added around the driver's seat. These usually came in the form of lights of exotic colors or seat covers with wool and fringes or even leather. It was very common to see the gear-stick full of hanging knickknacks and the casing where the tickets and coins were stored covered with motifs.
Before 1995 tickets were sold by the ''colectivero'' (driver) as he drove; they were colored strips of paper with a 5-digit number. Palindromic numbers
A palindromic number (also known as a numeral palindrome or a numeric palindrome) is a number (such as 16461) that remains the same when its digits are reversed. In other words, it has reflectional symmetry across a vertical axis. The term ''palin ...
(such as ''10301'') were called ''capicuas'' (from Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
''cap i cua'', "head and tail") and sometimes collected.
Usage in Buenos Aires
The colectivo bus operations of Buenos Aires provide a widespread and frequent bus service that attracts exceptionally high ridership with virtually no public financial support beyond subsidized petrol to keep fares low.
With low ticket prices, very frequent services, and extensive routes, with many places within 400m of a route, the colectivo is a very widely used mode of transportation around the city. "Porteños" (Autonomous City of Buenos Aires' residents) have a love-hate relationship with the colectivo: on the one hand, they are usually very crowded in rush hour and plagued with pickpockets
Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person or a victim's pocket without them noticing the theft at the time. It may involve considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection. A th ...
, petty thieves
Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for some ...
, beggars
Begging (also panhandling) is the practice of imploring others to grant a favor, often a gift of money, with little or no expectation of reciprocation. A person doing such is called a beggar or panhandler. Beggars may operate in public plac ...
and hawker
Hawker or Hawkers may refer to:
Places
* Hawker, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra
* Hawker, South Australia, a town
* Division of Hawker, an Electoral Division in South Australia
* Hawker Island, Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarct ...
s (itinerant salesmen), though more controlled nowadays. On the other hand, they are a necessity in the city, and a convenient and cheap way to get around. Most colectivos in the big cities of Argentina do not have a fixed timetable, but run at least four, and often many more, services per hour, depending on the bus line and time of day. During night-time, all colectivos in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
city run through their stops at least twice an hour.
Since december 10th 2015, SUBE card is the only way to pay the trips. It can refilled in drugstores, train and subway ( Subte) stations or prefilled in payment cell apps before accreditate in terminals on train, subte and some Metrobus stations
Fares
Most buses share a basic distance-dependent fare system. the "universal" fare in pesos was:
* ARS 18 (about USD 0.18) for one section
* ARS 20 (about USD 0.19) for two sections (within Buenos Aires, CABA)
* ARS 21 (about USD 0.20) for three sections or more (within Buenos Aires, CABA)
* ARS 22 (about USD 0.21) for two sections (Greater Buenos Aires, GBA
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...
)
* ARS 23 (about USD 0.22) for three sections (Greater Buenos Aires, GBA)
Section boundaries are fixed at about 3 km from each other (less so near the city center), so that a 4-kilometer ride may sometimes require to pay the second rate.
Fares are valid for one bus ride, with no transfer facility.
Some lines operate a number of "diferencial" (premium) buses, with no need to stand and with other amenities, for example curtains, at a higher price.
In popular culture
*The makers of the 1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...
motion picture ''La fiesta de todos
''La Fiesta de todos'' (''The party of Everyone'') is a 1979 Argentinian film produced by the Ente Autárquico Mundial 1978 (EAM´78), organization in charge of the organization of the 1978 FIFA World Cup where with a cast of Argentinian actors ...
'',www.cinenacional.com
after Argentina's victory in the 1978 FIFA World Cup were forced by the military government to film one of its key stories inside a colectivo.
*One of Argentina's best-remembered soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
s was called ''Un mundo de 20 asientos'' ("A 20-seat world") and its main character was a ''colectivero'' (colectivo driver).
* Domestically, the colectivo is also called ''bondi''; the word comes from the name of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
's tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
ways (''bondes''), in turn from English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
''bonds'', which is how the government paid for the Rio tramway system to the British company that built it.
*The term colectivo came to be used in some neighbouring countries including Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
. However, the word can also be found in all Latinamerica, particularly Colombia, Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
(as Combi), Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
and Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...
.
See also
*Customised buses
Customised buses are buses that have been modified for decorative purposes. The customisation is unrelated to performing their job or work, usually as public transport buses. Customised buses are also sometimes not used for a job or work, and are ...
*
*Jeepney
Jeepneys (), sometimes called jeeps (), are minibus-like public transportation, public utility vehicles, serving as the most popular means of Transportation in the Philippines, public transportation in the Philippines. They are known for their ...
- a similar type of vehicle used in the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
*Matatu
In Kenya matatu or matatus (known as mathree in Sheng) are privately owned minibuses used as share taxis. Often decorated, many ''matatu'' feature portraits of famous people or slogans and sayings. Likewise, the music they play is also aimed ...
- a similar type of vehicle used in some African countries
*Transportation in Argentina
Transport in Argentina is mainly based on a complex network of routes, crossed by relatively inexpensive long-distance buses and by cargo trucks. The country also has a number of national and international airports. The importance of the long-di ...
References
External links
Colectivos Urbanos
on Argentina.gob.ar
on BusARG
La historia del "colectivo" argentino
{{Buenos Aires Transit
Argentine culture
Bus terminology
Customised buses
Transport in Argentina
Transport in Buenos Aires