Latin American public transport (PT) systems are the backbone of urban transport with high ridership levels but at the same time, they face substantial deficits in terms of their sustainability. No comprehensive framework for PT sustainability assessment exists so far that is tailored to the specific local situation in this region. Therefore, this study develops for the first time a theoretically sound and feasible index for assessing the sustainability of PT systems in Latin America, the Sustainable Public Transport Index for Latin America (SPTI-LATAM). The index is based on an Assessment Indicator Model (AIM) with overall 49 indicators in the five dimensions system effectiveness, social, environmental, economic, governance and integrated transport planning. The SPTI-LATAM is designed with three levels: 1) the basic index (BSPTI) containing 32 indicators; 2) the extended index (ESPTI) including 11 additional indicators; and 3) the global index (GSPTI) with 6 additional indicators. The BSPTI is computed for eleven case study cities to demonstrate its feasibility and to analyze the sustainability of PT systems in the region. The framework uses the Equal Weighting Aggregation (EWA) method for assigning weights to each indicator, the Weighted Sum Model (WSM) for aggregating the indicators to the overall index and international standards and benchmarks for normalization. The final scores of the BSPTI show that the case study cities have still challenges to reach sustainability since only two cities had scores slightly higher than the half of achievable points (55 and 51), while eight cities had scores between 40 and 50 points, and one city achieved 39 points. Deficits are identified mainly for PT service quality, for the environmental performance, for the governance dimension and less for PT system coverage. Overall, the analysis of the BSPTI-LATAM for the 11 case study cities shows that the index is suitable for benchmarking sustainability of local PT systems and ready to be used in research and practice.

拉丁美洲的公共交通（PT）系统是城市交通的支柱，客流量很高，但与此同时，它们在可持续性方面面临着巨大的赤字。迄今为止，尚不存在适合该地区具体情况的综合性 PT 可持续性评估框架。因此，本研究首次开发了一个理论上合理且可行的指标来评估拉丁美洲公共交通系统的可持续性，即拉丁美洲可持续公共交通指数（SPTI-LATAM）。该指数基于评估指标模型（AIM），共有49个指标，涉及系统有效性、社会、环境、经济、治理和综合交通规划五个维度。SPTI-LATAM分为三个层次：1）基础指标（BSPTI），包含32个指标；2）扩展指数（ESPTI）包括11个附加指标；3) 具有 6 个附加指标的全球指数 (GSPTI)。BSPTI 针对 11 个案例研究城市进行计算，以证明其可行性并分析该地区 PT 系统的可持续性。该框架采用等权重聚合（EWA）方法为各指标分配权重，采用加权求和模型（WSM）将指标聚合为总体指数，并采用国际标准和基准进行归一化。BSPTI 的最终得分显示，案例研究城市在实现可持续发展方面仍然面临挑战，因为只有两个城市的得分略高于可实现分数的一半（55 和 51），而八个城市的得分在 40 到 50 分之间，并且1个城市获得39分。缺陷主要针对 PT 服务质量、环境绩效、治理维度，较少针对 PT 系统覆盖范围。总体而言，BSPTI-LATAM 对 11 个案例研究城市的分析表明，该指数适合对当地 PT 系统的可持续性进行基准测试，并准备用于研究和实践。