Colombia has started construction on its first underground rail station, according to railwaygazette.com. The San Germán station is part of the 13.3 km Metro de la 80 light rail project in Medellín.

Work began in June 2026 on the station, which is being built in a 500 m long tunnelled section in western Medellín. Metro de Medellín says it will be the country’s first underground rail station. The city’s existing metro runs on elevated and street-level alignments, while Bogotá’s under-construction metro will be wholly elevated.

The Metro de la 80, also known as Ecociudad Line E or the Pink Line, started construction in April 2023 with a groundbreaking ceremony. Civil works began in piecemeal fashion in 2024.

The medium-capacity light rail line will run primarily along Avenida 80, the main north-south road corridor in the west of the city, from Caribe metro station in the north to Aguacatala metro station in the south. It will serve 17 stops.

The 3.5bn peso project is being financed 70:30 by the central government and the city authority. Opening is planned for 2028.

The project is being built by the Metro de la 80 consortium, which comprises main suppliers CRRC (rolling stock) and Mota-Engil (civil works), alongside Ineo Urban Transportation Solutions (telematics) and Siemens Mobility (power supplies and signalling).

‘This project prevents the emission of 131 000 tonnes of CO₂. It is environmentally friendly and, of course, it brings us together as a society’, said Medellín Mayor Federico Gutiérrez Zuluaga during the station’s groundbreaking ceremony on June 3.