On June 2, federal elections were held in Mexico in which the candidate of the coalition Sigamos Haciendo Historia Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo won more than 59% of the votes, enough to become the successor of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in office since 2018. Beyond other types of political, social or macroeconomic considerations, Sheinbaum’s election sends a very clear message about what kind of measures in sustainable mobility and environmental improvements the next Mexican president intends to establish. Sheinbaum, who will become the first woman to head the United Mexican States on October 1, has accumulated significant experience in the fight to reduce the effects of global warming and combat the serious traffic problems that Mexico City has been suffering for decades by improving infrastructure and public transport services. Back in the day, when she was Secretary of the Environment in the Federal District government headed by AMLO himself, Sheinbaum Pardo was responsible for coordinating the Second Floor of the Peripheral Ring Road project.
With a metropolitan area population of almost 23 million people, Mexico City has been a real challenge for all mobility experts who have tried to improve the daily transit of its inhabitants. UNAM professor José Antonio Olvera Andrade recently stated that in recent times new urban mobility problems have been generated by the increase in the use of motorcycles and bicycles. This change in the habits of the capital’s inhabitants is due, according to the professor, to the still evident problems of traffic congestion, as well as a still deficient public transportation. However, it is also fair to recognize that during the five years that the now president-elect directed the designs of one of the most populated cities on the planet, efforts to improve sustainable urban mobility were redoubled. Among other measures, Claudia Sheinbaum’s cabinet implemented an elevated trolleybus system, the single mobility card began to operate, the Passenger Transport Network was renewed with the acquisition of electric and low-emission buses, 200 kilometers of bike lanes and several vehicular bridges were built, Line 1 of the Metro was modernized and the expansion of Line 12 began. Thanks to this effort in the energy transition in mobility and investment in modernization, in 2021 the UN recognized Mexico City as a world example in electric public transport. Another of the projects put into operation during Sheinbaum’s term in office had a lot to do with obtaining this recognition: the new cable car network to connect distant points within the metropolitan area, the Cablebus.
Image of Cablebus Line 2. Photo:Oswaldo Ramirez.
Cablebus is an innovative proposal that aims to combine some of the mobility objectives that the new president has been pursuing for decades, and which in 2007 won the Nobel Peace Prize as a member of the UN-sponsored team of experts trying to raise awareness about climate change. According to the Mexico City Electric Transport Service’s own website, “Cablebus translates into social justice” as it “reduces inequalities in travel times from the highlands of Mexico City”. The system aims to overcome long distances while avoiding the already congested surface traffic thanks to a modern network of stations that serve as nodes with other public transportation systems while helping to connect popular neighborhoods. Cablebus was not the first cable car in the country, already in 1979 a cable system was inaugurated in Zacatecas with two stations and that served to cross from the Cerro del Grillo to the Cerro de La Bufa, with an incredible view of the city. In 2016 it underwent maintenance, to be reopened in 2018. Other places where we will find cable cars are: Durango, Taxco, Chihuahua and Puebla.
The Cablebus project was presented in February 2019 and construction of the first line began that same autumn, which with an extension of 9.2 kilometers would connect the Indios Verdes and Tialpexco stations. Thanks to the 377 modern cabins with a capacity for 10 passengers and an average speed of 21 km/h, travel time was reduced by 54% from more than 70 minutes to less than 34 minutes. The cost of this first line, which came into operation in July 2021, was around 3 billion Mexican pesos. Simultaneously, line 2 between Constitución de 1917 and Santa Marta was being built to come into operation in August of the same year and become the longest cable car in the world with its 10.55 kilometers. This second line had 7 stations and 307 modern cable cars equipped with Wifi or security cameras of the D-Line model manufactured by the Austrian company Doppelmayr. This expert manufacturer of cable car cabins was also the supplier of choice for the world’s largest network, built between the Bolivian cities of La Paz and El Paso, which has already carried more than 557 million passengers in the 10 years it has been in operation.
The Cablebus figures are obviously more humble, but they already show the great acceptance of this system, since in less than three years more than 100 million passengers had already used the first two operational lines. It is expected that by the end of 2024 the third line will be in operation, which in addition to linking the West of Mexico City with the Chapultepec Forest through 6 stations, will have a double mobility and cultural aspect, as it will also connect with the new Cineteca Nacional. The investment for the 5.42 kilometers of the new line, which is already undergoing tests and will have 180 cabins, amounts to 2.4 billion Mexican pesos. In total, for the first three Cablebus lines, more than 8.5 billion pesos will have been invested in more than 25 kilometers of cable cars for a capacity of more than 150,000 passengers per day. But by all indications, we are still witnessing the first steps of a transport system on which Claudia Sheinbaum’s successor in office will bet heavily. The elected Head of Government for Mexico City, Clara Brugada, who will start her mandate on October 5, has already assured that she is planning the construction of 4 more Cablebus lines in the coming years. As a result, districts such as Tlalpan, Álvaro Obregón, Milpa Alta-Xochimilco and Cuajimalpa, with a total of more than two million inhabitants, will be able to join this system, which has high satisfaction rates among users. In an extensive study carried out by the UNAM, more than 99% of Cablebus passengers are satisfied or very satisfied with the service, while 90% say that their quality of life has improved thanks to the cable car.
Regarding the mobility policies that the next president plans to implement during her six years in office, she has already made public the first of them: a major commitment to rail transport. The project presented by Sheinbaum will link through a high-speed network Mexico City with Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, transiting through eight states: Hidalgo, State of Mexico, Queretaro, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon. It is estimated that the line may reach Nogales, Sonora, crossing the Pacific coast. The complete project contemplates the habilitation of more than 3,500 kilometers of railroad tracks. Sheinbaum explained that this ambitious plan will be developed in an estimated period of five years and will be executed with the collaboration of military engineers and private companies, replicating the model of the Mayan Train. In his electoral proposals, he had already committed himself to consolidate the strategic projects bequeathed by López Obrador, such as the Mayan Train, the Interoceanic Train or the Felipe Ángeles Airport, as well as the modernization of the six refineries and the hydroelectric plants. He also advocated providing electric transport to the main Mexican cities, with trolleybus, metrobus and cablebus lines. Because the positive experience of Cablebus in Mexico City seems likely to generate a domino effect in other Mexican cities. For example, the Michoacán state government has already earmarked an investment of 3 billion pesos for the construction of an urban cable car that will include buildings and associated structures in the city of Uruapan. This new urban cable car will be 8 kilometers long and will carry up to 1,500 people per hour in each direction, thus becoming a new example of sustainable urban mobility.
Links:
https://www.gaceta.unam.mx/la-movilidad-en-cdmx-enfrenta-nuevos-retos/
https://www.ste.cdmx.gob.mx/cablebus
https://www.excelsior.com.mx/comunidad/inicia-construccion-de-linea-1-del-cablebus-en-la-gam/1335987
https://www.milenio.com/milenio-foros/cablebus-ciudad-mexico-91-6-millones-viajes-2021