A 35-year-old nurse has married a public bus she calls the “love of her life”.
Yeline Lizbeth Patiño even took a cleaning job to be near the red vehicle.
She has a paper that “certifies” the union, a tattoo of the bus on her torso, and a love song on the way.
Her crush is not a single licence plate, but an entire bus route that bears a specific number.
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It is Route 60 – the long red articulated buses that flash A60 one way and F60 the other – and the glowing “60” itself.
The 35-year-old lives in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, and is originally from Pasto in Nariño.
She told What’s The Jam: “I am a professional nurse and a singer from Pasto, but I always wanted to live in Bogotá to pursue my artistic dreams.
“I experienced my first instance of mechanophilia when I was 10 years old.
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“I fell head over heels for a Trans Sandoná bus – number 2200 – an intercity bus that ran from the municipality of San Pablo to Pasto.
“My love was deep and genuine. I would cry over it and write it letters.”
In 2000, the city’s giant red bus network was launched.
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She said: “Simply seeing them on TV and as toy replicas turned them into my lifelong platonic love.”
Yeline later dated men, but the buses never left her.
“Although I went on to have relationships with men and boyfriends, I first encountered the TransMilenio route H60 on television in 2006 when I was 15.
“A feeling awakened in me that led me to play-act marrying it in my imagination.
“After that, I never experienced mechanophilia again until I went to Bogotá.
“I went there for the first time in 2022, and one of the very first things I did was go to see the TransMilenio route 60 – which by then was the bi-articulated A60/F60.
“It felt like a real encounter, even though I didn’t realise at the time that my love for it was genuine.”
By 2023, she had moved to the capital and fallen for the A60–F60 run.
“The letters indicate the destination or the path taken – ‘A’ for the route along Avenida Caracas and ‘F’ for the one heading toward Las Américas – but what truly captivates me is the number 60.”
Yeline is not, she insists, married to a single chassis.
Any articulated bus carrying that route becomes the thing she loves.
“As technology advanced, buses evolved too,” she explained.
“Through my mechanophilia, I perceive that a bus takes on a distinct identity – one that completely possesses it – whenever it runs a specific route.
“And it is that specific entity I love: the articulated TransMilenio bus when it is running the 60 route.
“The electronic display showing the number 60 is part of the machine as well.
“Its structure, colour, and material captivate me – they are, I dare say, my reason for living.”
The feeling hardened when she saw the bus up close.
“It was a childhood love – a bond akin to a marriage that had lasted nearly 20 years.
“I decided to start a relationship with it and marry it in a ceremony – one held in secret, as I did not want to reveal it to the world at the time.”
Friends lent her a white dress and there was cake, a party, a pearl ring, one supportive friend, and a relative at the private bash.
A later document set out her wish to marry “TransMilenio route AF60, an articulated bus in Bogotá”.
Yeline said there is “a paper that certifies” the symbolic union.
She visits the depot and hugs the door when she can get close enough.
She once confronted someone who smashed a door on “her” F60, calling it a girlfriend’s duty.
Yeline works nights as a cleaner so she can wash the fleet and stay beside it.
She said she is happy just to be there.
Last month she went further.
A tattoo now runs along her torso showing the front of an articulated bus, the legend “F60 Portal Américas”, and the city’s cathedral.
She marked their first anniversary in October 2025 with a ride between stations and a private ceremony.
She said she went public about her marriage for one reason only.
“I made this public for one reason only: I am terrified – truly terrified – that TransMilenio will cancel that route,” she said.
“They make so many changes, and honestly, everything I’m doing – risking my reputation, my career, and my life with this news; getting a tattoo of it; writing a song about it that I’m releasing soon; and starting social initiatives, advocacy campaigns, and free events – is all aimed at making the TransMilenio ‘Route 60’ beloved by everyone, so that the company finds it difficult to discontinue the service.”
She believes the route could go within a couple of years.
“I recently learned that the route might be eliminated in less than two years due to the arrival of the metro.
“I feel such a sense of helplessness and pain because TransMilenio knows what this means to me.
“I am asking for just one thing: that there be a TransMilenio articulated bus bearing the number ‘60’ on its route – it doesn’t matter where it goes.
“That would be very easy for them to do, yet their attitude has shown me that they might not care about hurting me this way.
“I want to contact lawyers and other people, and do everything I possibly can, because I am alone here in Colombia – there are no other cases like this – and all I want is inclusion.”
She wants backup from objectophiles and from human-rights groups.
“I would like someone from an international human rights organisation, or people who identify as mechanophiles or objectophiles, to join my cause and help me.
“I don’t want that route to be removed.
“It is the most immense and beautiful love imaginable.
“I would like international support.
“To preserve the route’s identity within the system, I want everyone to stand in solidarity with my cause so we can gather signatures or submit joint requests – perhaps form a fan club for the route, or do something to prevent its removal – if there is no other way.”
Mechanophilia – a love of machines – and objectum sexuality are rare and often mocked orientations.
She said she still likes men, has dated them, and has not ruled out a family in the future.
But whether a transport firm keeps a “60” on an electronic sign for a single passenger is another matter.
For Yeline Lizbeth Patiño, that digit is not a timetable code.
It is the name on the marriage paper, the picture on her skin, and the reason she mops out a depot at night – just to stay near the love of her life.
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