Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda led a sectoral transportation forum in Tijuana on April 22 to launch a plan for modernizing the city’s aging employee shuttle bus fleet. The initiative brings together the North American Development Bank (NADBank), the World Resources Institute (WRI) México, and private sector partners under the state’s RESPIRA mobility program.
Tijuana’s maquiladora sector depends on thousands of employee transport buses that carry workers to and from factories across the city each day. The World Resources Institute estimates that 7,600 employee transport vehicles nationwide need replacing, and Tijuana will serve as the pilot city for a transition to low-emission vehicles.
NADBank and WRI Back the Effort
Salvador López Córdova, NADBank’s executive director of environmental affairs, said the goal is to identify options that make employee transport services “cleaner, more comfortable and more efficient.” He called employee shuttle buses a central component of urban life in border cities like Tijuana, where they generate major social benefits by moving industrial workers who lack other options.
WRI México representatives echoed that message, pointing to the opportunity to replace outdated, high-polluting buses with modern low-emission units. If the Tijuana pilot succeeds, organizers plan to replicate the model in 14 other U.S.-Mexico border cities, including Mexicali.
RESPIRA Program Frames the Strategy
Governor Ávila Olmeda said the RESPIRA program operates on two tracks. The first focuses on road infrastructure: new roads, overpasses, depressed bridges, and viaducts to improve logistics and traffic flow. The second targets transport modernization through new strategies and cleaner fleets.
NADBank already has a track record of financing transit upgrades in Tijuana. The bank previously funded the acquisition of 39 Euro-VI diesel buses and five electric buses for the Agua Caliente Corridor, a 10.5-mile route that serves as one of the city’s main transit arteries. That project also included charging infrastructure and modern electronic payment systems.
No Timeline or Budget Yet
No specific funding amounts or completion dates were announced at the April 22 forum. The event was structured as a coordination meeting between public, private, and social sector actors. Organizers described it as the first step toward building a financing framework for the fleet transition.
For Tijuana, where employee shuttle buses account for millions of daily trips, the stakes are high. The city’s industrial parks stretch from Otay Mesa to El Florido, and most factory workers rely entirely on employer-provided buses for their commutes.
The forum was first reported by Punto Norte on April 22, with additional details published by El Tijuanense, Pregonero Baja, and Tijuana en Línea.