1001 Smart Cities

Permanent project revision

STM: Montevideo's Bus Fare Card and Its Open Trip Data

Revision 2026-11-07-baseline · effective 2026-11-07

Current revision. This is the snapshot used by the live entity page.

unreviewed

Created the first structured Evidence Passport with 17 claims and 9 source dossiers.

sha256:1a1a1e96bc7e63f96e498476003a22d76ecdca4df74f47482ce3bbd46822f368
All revisions → Current entity page →

Change set

  • add /evidencePassport — Added claim-level evidence mapping and source dossiers.
  • add /revisionHistory — Established a permanent, hash-addressed baseline revision.
17
of 17 claims mapped
9
source dossiers
8
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Claims, one by one

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-28a5f14df2d2c66c descriptive
the Intendencia de Montevideo's fare card
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The guide describes the card as the city's own system: the Intendencia sets the fare differential and the minimum top-up and runs the user offices.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. El Observador — Las claves para usar la tarjeta STM en los ómnibus (26 Oct 2016)
Claim 3 clm-4811b5555fd98709 quantitative
the card and GPS on the buses arrived in 2008
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The city's own article dates the card system for bus tickets, with GPS on the buses, to 2008.
Caveat
The engineering faculty's 2019 slides date the introduction of the STM to 2010; the 2008 date is the city's.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. AGESIC — Datos y participación: transporte público en tiempo real (article by the Intendencia de Montevideo, 1 Mar 2019)
Claim 4 clm-8796b4db219cd4bc quantitative
on 4 July 2009 the card became compulsory for the two-hour ticket
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
Reports that the card was made compulsory for buying the two-hour ticket on 4 July 2009.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Montevideo Portal — Se pedirá tarjeta para boleto 1 hora (27 Jul 2009)
Claim 5 clm-89cb42a69eefc92c descriptive
which allows unlimited rides on any company's buses within two hours
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
Describes the two-hour ticket as allowing travel on any company's buses with no limit on the number of buses for two hours.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. El Observador — Las claves para usar la tarjeta STM en los ómnibus (26 Oct 2016)
Claim 6 clm-e92e3338482d26ce descriptive
Riders validate the card only when they board.
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The slides describe the STM as a tap-in system in which passengers validate the card only when boarding.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Facultad de Ingeniería, Udelar — Renzo Massobrio, Análisis de datos del sistema de transporte público de Montevideo (workshop, 5 Jun 2019)
Claim 7 clm-60ea50caeadf9ad3 quantitative
Since 2016 the buses' positions have been sent to the city's data centre in real time
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The city says bus location data have been transmitted in real time to its data centre since 2016.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. AGESIC — Datos y participación: transporte público en tiempo real (article by the Intendencia de Montevideo, 1 Mar 2019)
Claim 8 clm-5169f57f1eab3980 descriptive
the city's Cómo Ir app shows them with estimated arrival times
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The city added live bus positions and arrival times to its existing Cómo Ir app, with a web version.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. AGESIC — Datos y participación: transporte público en tiempo real (article by the Intendencia de Montevideo, 1 Mar 2019)
Claim 9 clm-1bedf655e69a885b descriptive
The city publishes every trip recorded by the validation machines, by company, line, day, hour, user type and form of payment, as monthly open data
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The dataset description says it contains all trips on the urban lines, by operating company, line, variant, day and hour, by user type and form of payment, from all records processed by the validation machines, loaded monthly.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Intendencia de Montevideo, via Catálogo Nacional de Datos Abiertos — Viajes realizados en los ómnibus del Sistema de Transporte Metropolitano (dataset)
Claim 10 clm-365aac21c28f2ad4 quantitative
with files going back to November 2019
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The earliest monthly file in the dataset is for November 2019.
Caveat
Publication itself began in October 2020; the earlier months were added to the series.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Intendencia de Montevideo, via Catálogo Nacional de Datos Abiertos — Viajes realizados en los ómnibus del Sistema de Transporte Metropolitano (dataset)
Claim 11 clm-c98770a7d750f381 quantitative
After the city made a cash fare cost two pesos more than a card fare from 13 November 2016
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
From 13 November 2016 the cash fare rose to 30 pesos while card users kept paying 28; the January 2017 report describes the two-peso rise for those not using the card.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. El Observador — Las claves para usar la tarjeta STM en los ómnibus (26 Oct 2016)
  2. El Observador — Aumentó uso de STM pero tres de cada cuatro usuarios sigue pagando en efectivo (11 Jan 2017)
Claim 12 clm-d32446afa9c02079 quantitative
the share of trips paid electronically rose from 13% to 26%, according to the city's mobility director
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
Reports the mobility director saying electronic or postpaid payment rose from 13% in November to 26% in the latest data.
Caveat
A figure given by the city to a radio station, not a published series.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. El Observador — Aumentó uso de STM pero tres de cada cuatro usuarios sigue pagando en efectivo (11 Jan 2017)
Claim 13 clm-c0df291710810104 quantitative
In a week of May 2023, about 87% of some 4.9 million trips were validated with the STM card
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
CINVE's note, based on a week of May 2023, counts about 4.9 million trips, about 87% of them validated with the STM card.
Caveat
A share of trips paid by card is an adoption figure, not a measure of service quality.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. CINVE — ¿Quiénes sostienen el transporte público? Una perspectiva de género del STM, Nota Técnica 4 (3 Jun 2024)
Claim 14 clm-c9e07c623247c84a descriptive
according to an analysis by the research centre CINVE of data supplied by the city
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The note thanks the Intendencia for supplying the data for a week of May 2023.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. CINVE — ¿Quiénes sostienen el transporte público? Una perspectiva de género del STM, Nota Técnica 4 (3 Jun 2024)
Claim 15 clm-b359827b90744801 descriptive
researchers working with Montevideo's card and GPS data have had to estimate origin-destination matrices
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The slides list the estimation of origin-destination matrices as part of the research using bus GPS and card sales data.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Facultad de Ingeniería, Udelar — Renzo Massobrio, Análisis de datos del sistema de transporte público de Montevideo (workshop, 5 Jun 2019)
Claim 16 clm-a7581d07ef0237a1 quantitative
In February 2024 the mayor said the bus companies would begin installing machines for paying by bank card or QR code from July
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
Reports mayor Cosse announcing that from July the companies would start installing new machines allowing payment by debit card, credit card and QR code as well as the STM.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. El Observador — Pago con QR, débito y crédito: cuándo empiezan a regir cambios en el STM (27 Feb 2024)
Claim 17 clm-03616a1fef215520 quantitative
in August 2026 the mobility director said the upgrade, letting riders pay on board with debit, credit or prepaid cards or a phone, is expected to be completed by mid-2027
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
Reports mobility director Germán Benítez saying riders will be able to pay on board with debit, credit, prepaid cards or a phone, with the upgrade expected to be finished by mid-2027.
Caveat
The 2024 date passed without the change; the 2027 date is a new announcement.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. El Observador — Cómo funciona el sistema de pago con tarjetas de crédito, débito y prepaga que incorporarán los ómnibus de Montevideo (20 Aug 2026)

Source dossiers and revision state

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-11-07-baseline effective 2026-11-07 · created 2026-11-07

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:1a1a1e96bc7e63f96e498476003a22d76ecdca4df74f47482ce3bbd46822f368
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
17
of 17 claims mapped
9
source dossiers
8
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Intendencia de Montevideo (STM card, data centre, Cómo Ir); buses run by Cutcsa, Coetc, Ucot and Come
Actor types
city-government, private
Funding model
public
Funding description
The Intendencia de Montevideo runs the card system; the card is free the first time. The US$5 million for new on-board payment machines announced in 2024 was part of the city's fund for renewing the bus fleet.
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

9 source dossiers

AGESIC — Datos y participación: transporte público en tiempo real (article by the Intendencia de Montevideo, 1 Mar 2019) gub.uy · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-a123bb2439e1b903
Publisher
Name not classified · gub.uy
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2019-03-01
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-11-07
Dossier created
2026-11-07
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

An article written by the Intendencia de Montevideo and republished by the national e-government agency. It says a card system for bus tickets with GPS on the buses was introduced in 2008, that since 2016 bus positions have been transmitted in real time to the city's data centre, and that the city added live bus positions and arrival estimates to its existing Cómo Ir app.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Montevideo Portal — Se pedirá tarjeta para boleto 1 hora (27 Jul 2009) montevideo.com.uy · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-e97e9ab9cffa37e3
Publisher
Name not classified · montevideo.com.uy
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2009-07-27
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-11-07
Dossier created
2026-11-07
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Report that the STM card became compulsory for the two-hour ticket on 4 July 2009 and would soon be required for the one-hour ticket; the city's transport director said 320,000 cards had been issued, of which about 100,000 were in use.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
El Observador — Las claves para usar la tarjeta STM en los ómnibus (26 Oct 2016) elobservador.com.uy · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-cbdd987983d430d3
Publisher
Name not classified · elobservador.com.uy
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2016-10-26
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-11-07
Dossier created
2026-11-07
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Guide to the card when the city introduced a cheaper card fare: the cash fare rose to 30 pesos from 13 November 2016 while card users kept paying 28; more than a million cards had been issued, fewer than 20% topped up regularly; the city set a minimum top-up of 150 pesos; the two-hour ticket allows unlimited buses of any company for two hours.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
El Observador — Aumentó uso de STM pero tres de cada cuatro usuarios sigue pagando en efectivo (11 Jan 2017) elobservador.com.uy · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-56e563331448a822
Publisher
Name not classified · elobservador.com.uy
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2017-01-11
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-11-07
Dossier created
2026-11-07
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Reports the mobility director, Pablo Inthamoussu, saying electronic or postpaid payment rose from 13% of trips in November 2016 to 26% after the fare incentives, against a campaign promise to remove cash from buses within two years; 74% of users still paid the higher cash fare.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
CINVE — ¿Quiénes sostienen el transporte público? Una perspectiva de género del STM, Nota Técnica 4 (3 Jun 2024) cinve.org.uy · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-358b133843b48f57
Publisher
Name not classified · cinve.org.uy
Type / language
pdf · language not classified
Published
2024-06-03
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-11-07
Dossier created
2026-11-07
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Technical note by the research centre CINVE, based on STM data for a typical week of May 2023 supplied by the Intendencia: about 4.9 million trips, about 87% (4.3 million) validated with the STM card, made by about 600,000 people, 62% of them women.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Facultad de Ingeniería, Udelar — Renzo Massobrio, Análisis de datos del sistema de transporte público de Montevideo (workshop, 5 Jun 2019) fing.edu.uy · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-77adfdded0fb5f9f
Publisher
Name not classified · fing.edu.uy
Type / language
pdf · language not classified
Published
2019-06-05
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-11-07
Dossier created
2026-11-07
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Workshop slides from the engineering faculty of the Universidad de la República: buses carry GPS, passengers validate the STM card only when boarding (tap-in), the research used bus GPS and card sales data under an agreement with the city, and the work estimates origin-destination matrices and travel times. The slides date the STM to 2010.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Intendencia de Montevideo, via Catálogo Nacional de Datos Abiertos — Viajes realizados en los ómnibus del Sistema de Transporte Metropolitano (dataset) catalogodatos.gub.uy · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-c79a7824b6f4d3b4
Publisher
Name not classified · catalogodatos.gub.uy
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-11-07
Dossier created
2026-11-07
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The city's open dataset of all trips on Montevideo's urban bus lines, by operating company, line, variant, day and hour, with boardings at every stop by user type, form of payment and number of legs, taken from all records processed by the validation machines. Monthly files run from November 2019; publication began in October 2020, under Uruguay's open-data licence.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
El Observador — Pago con QR, débito y crédito: cuándo empiezan a regir cambios en el STM (27 Feb 2024) elobservador.com.uy · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-ee6c43f3f49eea7d
Publisher
Name not classified · elobservador.com.uy
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2024-02-27
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-11-07
Dossier created
2026-11-07
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Reports mayor Carolina Cosse saying the bus companies would start installing new machines from July 2024 for paying by debit card, credit card or QR code as well as the STM card, at a cost of US$5 million that was part of the fund launched that month to renew the bus fleet.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
El Observador — Cómo funciona el sistema de pago con tarjetas de crédito, débito y prepaga que incorporarán los ómnibus de Montevideo (20 Aug 2026) elobservador.com.uy · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-80d4d079718d5810
Publisher
Name not classified · elobservador.com.uy
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2026-08-20
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-11-07
Dossier created
2026-11-07
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Reports mobility director Germán Benítez announcing that riders will be able to pay on board with debit, credit or prepaid cards or a phone, without depending only on the STM card, and that the upgrade of the machines on the buses is expected to be completed by mid-2027.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Known limits of this file
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.