Most "smart public transport" coverage is about apps and payment cards. The more interesting question is who gets a usable public transport option at all — a fixed-route bus network was never going to reach every hillside barrio or informal settlement, and that gap is where some of the most creative projects in this dataset live.
Medellín's Metrocable is the reference case: cable cars folded directly into the metro fare and network, connecting hillside barrios that buses couldn't climb and taxis wouldn't reliably serve. It didn't just add a transit line, it added the surrounding neighbourhoods to the functioning city.
In many fast-growing cities, informal transport already does the job of a bus network — it's just invisible to planners and apps. Nairobi's Digital Matatus project sent researchers to ride roughly 130 matatu (minibus) routes with GPS-equipped phones, then converted the tracks into a modified GTFS format, publishing it in 2014 — the first informal transit system added to Google Maps. That single dataset made Nairobi's transit legible to routing apps, planners and, eventually, the operators themselves.
Not every entry here is a piece of hardware. Tallinn's fare-free transit for registered residents, running since 2013, shows that a governance decision — verified through a personalised smartcard rather than new infrastructure — can move as many people as a technology rollout. It's filed here rather than under a specific mobility project because the "system" is a registration database and a fare policy, not a vehicle.
All four projects treat public transport as a coverage and legibility problem before a technology problem: reach the places the network doesn't, and make visible the network that already, informally, exists. See the Mobility category for the wider picture, including where AI-driven traffic coordination fits alongside these transit-first approaches.
The vehicle is nearly the same everywhere. What differs is who signed for it, who carries the risk when a supplier fails, and who the city can hold to a timetable.
| Project | Since | Status | Outcome | Evidence | Run by | Cost | Who owns the vehicle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World's First All-Electric Bus FleetShenzhen, 🇨🇳 | 2017 | Live | Succeeded | Independent | Utility or public operator | not public | The city bought the fleet outright and built the depots to charge it — electrification treated as procurement, not technology. |
| DTC Electric Bus Fleet & DEVi Feeder ServiceNew Delhi, 🇮🇳 | 2022 | Live | Ongoing | Official | Utility or public operator, Private company | not public | Private operators own, run and maintain the buses on twelve-year gross cost contracts; the transport corporation pays by the kilometre. |
| BEST electric bus fleetMumbai, 🇮🇳 | 2017 | Live | Ongoing | Media | Utility or public operator | not public | A century-old municipal undertaking converting its own network by long-term wet lease rather than buying outright — and slowed by supplier delivery. |
| Thai Smile Bus Electric Fleet & Bangkok's Route ReformBangkok, 🇹🇭 | 2022 | Live | Ongoing | Official | Private company, Utility or public operator | not public | A private concessionaire took over routes the state operator gave up, which moved faster and tied the city's green fleet to one company's balance sheet. |