The Largest Metro System of the Americas | Mexico City Metro Explained

this video is sponsored by nordvpn the leading VPN service that'll help you browse the web safely with the best cyber security tools check out the link in the description for an awesome discount or stay tuned till the end of the video to learn more when people think about metros in North America well okay people don't usually think about metros in North America but if they did and they should the Mexico City metro is an impressively large Network that you should get to know the system has 12 lines and nearly 200 stations all interconnected with far more interchanges than you'd expect making getting across Mexico's capital a breeze and transit in Mexico City doesn't stop at the Metro it has a comprehensive network of Express and electric buses more Rail lines on top of the metro and even gondolas with much more on the way all coming together to keep North America's most populous city moving and despite the Mexico City Metro's underappreciated status it moves more people every day than the iconic Paris Metro its distant cousin and nearly as many as the New York City subway with less than half the stations so without further Ado let's dive into the Mexico City metro if you enjoy explainers of transit systems around the world make sure to subscribe and hit the Bell icon we'll be covering a huge number of cities this year and you won't want to miss a single one Mexico City or cdmx as it's been branded in recent years is an incredible and vibrant city with a long history and to learn about the Metro properly we'll want to start with the city itself first this is the historic City Center and the cultural Heart of the City probably best identified by the Constitution Plaza or more commonly this Ocala but as Mexico City has grown and it's grown a lot new business areas have also developed outside of the old Center one great example of this is along the grand Paseo De La reforma a Broad Avenue framed by modern high-rise office Towers at the southwestern end of the spine is the chapultepec forest a massive highly programmed Green Space divided into four sections with museums a castle and even a zoo all reminding me a lot of New York's Central Park to the south of the park is a major bus terminal served by buses from across Mexico and as it turns out Mexico City actually has four of these with one in each cardinal direction the Eastern bus terminal is adjacent to Mexico City's International Airport which is not ideal it is very well served by the metro but its layout is super awkward its buildings are old and the site is highly constrained by surrounding neighborhoods the city's original plan to replace this airport was with a gigantic Ultra Modern new airport designed by fosterone partners and a large portion of the project was actually built at a site east of the city unfortunately the grand scale of the project made it quite unpopular and instead an existing military airport north of the city has been expanded to handle passenger traffic with the potential to become similarly big in the future the site of the original new airport will instead be turned into a nature preserve the final major site worth mentioning is Buena Vista station North of the city's historic Center this railway station will not used for long distance Intercity Services anymore is a major Transit Hub and is also the site of a massive mall with a sense for the fabric of the city I want to give you some of the highlights of the Metro before going in depth on the network itself because the system has a number of rather special elements for one the system is known for its low fares less than half a Canadian dollar per ride really low both in the international context generally but also for a system that is this extensive the system is also famous for its rubber tired trains which as in Montreal and Santiago is a second generation system designed from the ground up based on technology created for and retrofitted onto the Paris Metro trains are larger than in Paris with up to nine cars as seen in Montreal you may have also heard about the unique symbol System created for the Metro symbols are a fun thing given to every station and originally meant for a time when many could not read however this is not a real issue in the modern day and instead it stays around as a unique artistic feature of the system that's still useful in some situations something that also sets stations apart are the ruins integrated directly into stations like Pinot Suarez these can make the city's History part of an open and public Civic space and it's also a great concept seen in cities such as Athens various art exhibits and even small concerts also sometimes take place on the Metro Now for Something a bit more unusual Mexico City like Santiago and unlike Montreal fully Embraces running its Metro above ground but it often does so in a rather uncommon way while it's quite common globally to run a Metro or rail Transit service in the median of a highway Mexico City runs Metro lines down the center of various Avenues and sometimes not particularly wide ones this can be seen a lot on lines 2 and 3 in particular another odd feature you'll see across the network at Terminal stations such as El Rosario Martin Carrera and pantitlan are long stretched out yards often placed in the center of roadways as well these are typically combined with the standard Mexico City metro Terminus which itself is rather unique in that it generally features two Island platforms with three tracks the center featuring boarding on both sides now to dive into the lines of the system which I will discuss all at once for Simplicity and you'll actually see some patterns as construction was done over several distinct eras the first major portion of the system to be built were lines one two and three line one is an East-West Line running roughly from west of chapultepec Park at observatorio which is also the site of the Western Bus Terminal under Avenue Chipotle pack just south of the Paseo De La reforma to the historic City Center the Eastern bus terminal at San Lazaro and Beyond to pantitlin serving Mexico City's old International Airport the this line has a total of 20 stations over 17 kilometers of track line 2 is a West to South Line serving the historic Center and notably this ocalo before running to its Southern Terminus of tuscuena and the site of the Southern bus terminal line 2 is the system's most heavily used lion and features 24 stations over 20 kilometers line 3 is a 21 Station 21 kilometer north south line that runs from the University City in the South to the north passing the historic City Center on the west and forming a three-point triangle transfer with lines one and two hoping to spread transfer loads the first three lines of the Mexico City metro were all opened around the early 1970s and provided a fairly radial service focused around the historic City Center the lines also nicely framed the Paseo De La reforma with line one to the South Line two to the north and line three to the east following the first three lines things got sort of weird as a number of new circumferential lines were added to the Metro system in the 1980s framing the original triangle transfer and giving the network its distinctive decentralized topology to be clear these lines are not really Suburban but they definitely do not go directly through the old city center it's sort of weird line 4 is a pretty straightforward North South Line running through the city's East like line 4 in Toronto it's the shortest and least used line on the system but with a respectable 10 stations over 9 kilometers of track interestingly the line was the system's first foray into heavily elevated construction and thus has a fairly distinctive look and feel while the Mexico City metro generally has fairly reasonable transfers some stations like consolato on line 4 remind me of the Delhi Metro with a fairly long transfer walkway with line 5. and speaking of line 5 line 5 itself is a diagonal line traveling from the north of the city to the east in the northeast of the city with 13 stations over 14 kilometers of track at its North End the line connects to the northern bus terminal and it connects to line 1 at its eastern terminus point six is an East-West line in the north of this city which starts at the northern Terminus of line 4 and runs West 11 kilometers with 11 stations since demand is fairly low on line 6 as well as with line four shorter 6 car trains rather than full length nine car trains are used although a few nine-car trains have been reintroduced onto Line 6. as with its eastern end Line 6 also shares a terminal at its Western end with a north-south line but in this case line 7 which runs in the U.S of the City Line 7 has 14 stations over 11 kilometers of track and runs along the western edge of chapultepec Park as well as through the neighborhood of Polanco one of the wealthiest in Mexico the last of the lines to open in the 1980s was line 9 an East-West Line running in the south of the city that terminates on line one at both ends with pantiedlan and takubaya as it has 12 stations on 13 kilometers of track and a more direct alignment across the city than line one line 9 can act as a bit of an Express relief line for many East-West trips in the City and it also provides direct access to the meshooka sports complex which was built for the 1968 Summer Olympics as well as a Formula One race track now after the opening of the lines in the 80s little new Central capacity had been added to the system with line 2 especially running into heavy crowding issues and so in the 1990s line 8 came to the rescue lion 8 has 19 stations over 18 kilometers of track and runs from the populace southeast of the city to the north of the historic city center turning the triangle transfer in the city's Center into more of a square transfer now if you're wondering why line 8 opened after line 9 it's much the same as in Santiago Mexico City quite responsibly built their Metro system on a master plan and it simply happened that the line designated nine in the plan was fully planned and built before the line designated eight you can see similar things in many Chinese Metro systems these days where systems with far less than 20 lines are already seeing lines in the 20s opening now as it turns out it wouldn't be until nearly 20 years later when the latest numbered metro line in the system opened with line 12. the line is quite big with 20 stations spread over 25 kilometers of track and the alignment runs from the deep southeast of the city to an interchange with line 8 where the line turns Due West and connects with several north-south Lions before terminating at line 7. due to a tragic accident in 2021 causing a number of fatalities and injuries where a portion of elevated guideway extensively used on the southern portion of the line collapsed line 12 has been closed since the lines Underground ground portion is set to reopen in early 2023 and its above ground section will be reopened when it is rebuilt and strengthened the trains used on line 12 are unlike most of the others on this system and were a last minute change these cards are more conventional with steel wheels and 1500 volt DC overhead power lines while also being wider than the trains used on the rubber tire lines at 2.8 meters wide with seven car trains they're also arguably the nicest looking trains on the system with most of the Rolling Stock on the older lines looking very boxy by comparison although this is being fixed with the newest model trains slowly being rolled out onto line one now as you might imagine lines 10 and 11 have not been forgotten and simply have not been built yet well sort of as it turns out Mexico City has two Suburban Metro lines known as line a and line B which opened at the beginning and end of the 1990s respectively line a is a Suburban metro line that runs from pantied Land Southeast to La Paz with 10 stations over 15 kilometers of track and with steel wheeled trains the newest of which are very similar to those seen on line 12. albeit with 750 volt DC overhead power line B is slightly weirder it runs Northeast from an epic elevated station at San Lazaro deep into the suburbs in the median of a highway similar in style to line a but it also takes over portions of the alignment for the planned Line 10. running underground West from San Lazaro through the north of the historic City Center to a Terminus at Buena Vista station because of its hybrid design it's given a combined green and silver color and like older Metro Lions it utilized rubber tire trains running to the 21 stations along the 20 kilometer line now in addition to the Suburban Metro lines there are also two other Suburban rail Services currently operating in the Mexico City region one of these is the trends of Urbana a modern Suburban rail service with high floor fully walked through emu's from calf with lots of doors that operate on Mainline tracks electrified with 25 kilovolts AC overhead lines along a 27 kilometer route with seven stations running from Buena Vista station North and connecting with line 6 of the Metro on the way the trends up Urbano is particularly interesting as its trains share tracks and right-of-way with typical North American Freight showing this mixing is indeed possible listen up American and Canadian Freight companies the other Suburban railroad is the sochimilco light rail which was conceived as part of a larger never completed inter-urban scheme the line operates using single high floor articulated tram Vehicles like those used in Guadalajara and extends 18 stops over 13 kilometers south from tesquena in a fairly well isolated right-of-way that used to belong to the last remaining route of these City's extinct tram system Beyond just the current Network a lot of projects are actually underway in cdmx all of which really ought to get more coverage the first of these and probably the biggest is the new inter-urban line to Toluca this line is a fully new heavy rail line that will run from observatorio Southwest into the hills to the new age business district of Santa Fe sort of similar in concept to latifons or Canary Warth and then across the mountains into the Satellite City of Toluca in the spirit of the trend suburbano the Toluca rail line will be very modern with a design speed of 160 kilometers per hour a new heavily tunneled and elevated rail alignment 25 kilovolts AC overhead power and modern 10 car trains from cath the Total Line will be nearly 60 kilometers long and will feature seven stations unfortunately though to reach the historic City Center of Mexico or most other destinations Riders will need to change onto the Metro at observatorium fortunately observatorio is set to become much better connected as an extension of line 12 to the station is underway and an extension of line 9 is also planned this would ultimately create a similar Edge Hub to pantied land where passengers transfer between urban and Suburban services interestingly as part of the new Rail Link being built to the Mexico City Airport as a branch of the trend suburbanel some of the trains from the Toluca line have been borrowed for the service the new Branch will be 23 kilometers long with five stations and given the intercompatibility of it with the taluka and Trend suburbano trains it does give me hope in the long term Forum Mexico City aryarsky that could connect the northern routes to the Toluca line by way of a 10 kilometer rail tunnel that could also connect to lines 2 3 7 and B and bring rail to the Paseo De La reforma a second phase of such a project could convert line a to Mainline rail standards extend it and add a second Cross City Tunnel adding links to lines 4 5 and 8. now while Mexico City does not have an rer yet it does already feature various other transport modes used to link up its various neighborhoods and provide additional travel options for me the most notable of these is the Metrobus a seven line brt system that moves nearly 2 million Riders per day that's more than the entire Berlin ubon lines one two three five and six all feature substantial stations with turnstiles and raised platforms to work with the high capacity High floor buses used on those lines lines 4 and 7 use more traditional low floor buses with more modest stops the buses on line 7 being awesome double deckers that run along the Paseo De La reforma all buses have station announcements and information screens while all stations have digital screens with the etas for upcoming buses there's also the mexibus system that operates within the state of Mexico serving more Suburban areas to the north and east of the city this system has four routes and over a hundred stations all of which are meant for use with high floor buses it lacks the information screens and station announcements but it makes up for it with various Express services that skip stations unlike on the Metro bus on top of the brt systems there's also the Mexico City Trolley bus system which is part of the same transport division as the Sochi Milko Light Rail the trolley bus system has nine different lines that now use modern battery range extended trolley buses but most interesting of all is line 10. a new East-West elevated trolley bus line which operates articulated trolley buses on a fast route between line a and line 8. plans for the future call for a new line 11 that will head east from line a as well as a western extension of line 10. the full trolley bus fleet was renewed last year with the oldest buses now being from 2019 instead of 1985. Mexico City has also embraced cable-based transport with the cable bus a series of gondola routes that serve areas with challenging geography there are currently two routes with one terminating at the same stations as Charlie bus line 10 but providing a different route line 3 is already in construction and will connect to the four sections of the Chipotle Peck forest with additional routes also being planned funnily enough as with the brt the state of Mexico has a similar but differently named Gondola system which will eventually interconnect with the cable bus known as Mexi cable it's all rather confusing but more Transit more better with all of these routes considered you can see that there is a lot of rapid and high capacity transit in Mexico City beyond the metro and that with all of the systems combined there was an incredibly dense Network what's nice as well is that for many of the services including the very substantial ecobishi Bike Share system with over 6000 bikes and growing a single contactless transport card can be used something that some cities still do not have in 2022 there are a lot of lessons to be had from all of Mexico City's Transit from not putting your whole Metro deep underground to developing various transport modes for different types of Journeys to creating beautiful designs and stations that actually make people interested and excited to be in them and perhaps most of all that North America does have a giant modern Metro System picture this you've just enjoyed an informative RM Transit video and you head down to the comments section to see what insights other locals and viewers have to say about the Mexico City metro and to leave a nice comment of your own a nice one definitely a nice one a second later a notification comes through your YouTube app and apparently RM Transit has replied to you with a link to totally notsuspicious.com you might not think much of it and discard it right away but what about your Transit loving grandma would she be able to tell that it's probably a link to a virus ridden website this is where today's sponsor nordvpn comes in besides being a great virtual private network service that allows you to connect to 5000 plus servers in 59 countries around the world and get access to apps content and websites that might otherwise not be available wherever you might find yourself nordvpn also comes with threat protection an advanced anti-malware feature that blocks intrusive ads and web trackers as well as automatically scanning and blocking suspicious links to help you stay safe on the diverse landscape of the internet with a single nordvpn subscription you can also get access on up to six devices at once on every major platform so you don't have to worry about being able to access Internet safely on your work laptop personal phone or any of your other personal devices and of course nordvpn also offers best-in-class speeds saving me a ton of time whenever I need to upload new tube videos or do live streams when I'm on the go as well as giving you a great experience watching them go to nordvpn.com transit to get a two-year plan plus four additional months with a huge discount it's risk-free with nord's 30-day money-back guarantee and it'll help me keep bringing you great videos like this one again that's nordvpn.com Transit thanks again to nordvpn for sponsoring this video a special thanks to Guido Enriquez for his on the ground footage from Mexico City used in this video [Music]

Channel: RMTransit

Views: 170,536

Keywords: transit, transportation, rail, railway, railfan, public transit, public transport, public transportation, train, subway, metro, underground, rail transport, urban planning, mexico city, mexico, mexico city metro, cdmx

Id: 0hMTw1SrOjY

Length: 20min 28sec (1228 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 14 2023