Metro projects to complement Mexico City-Toluca rail link

Two metro projects are in the works to complement the under-construction 58km passenger rail link between Mexico City and Toluca in Mexico state.

The 90bn-peso (US$4bn) Mexico City-Toluca line, on which the federal government began work in 2014, will go from the Observatorio metro station in the west of the capital and run southwest to Toluca, crossing the Santa Fe business district. 

One of the complementary works is a 39bn-peso project to modernize Mexico City’s metro line No. 1, the network’s oldest, which will connect with the interurban train. The project – the subway’s biggest public investment – is currently out to tender. 

The other recent announcement concerns the transformation of Observatorio station, the last stop on line No. 1, which will be turned into a “mega terminal” to also connect with other transport systems.

BNamericas takes a look at all three projects. 

Observatorio terminal

Mexico City’s metro head Florencia Serranía told daily El Universal that the “transformation” of the station will be assigned to communications and transport ministry SCT and will be completed by 2022. 

"This complex will be the most important in Latin America, not only because of the number of systems that it will connect but also because of the enormous mobilization capacity that it will have and because it will allow the connection with various points in the country's capital," she reportedly said.

The plan also involves building terminals for metro lines No. 12 and 9 that will be expanded to reach line No. 1’s last station. 

The 9.9bn-peso expansion of line No. 12 is already underway with the excavation of a 4.6km tunnel to reach Observatorio station from its southern Mixcoac station, while a 1.46km expansion of line No. 9 from Tacubaya station to Observatorio is still to be tendered. 

So the Observatorio terminal, which will cover an area of 21ha, will connect four lines (three metro plus the interurban link) and other transport systems such as bus terminals. 

Serrenía said the government will allocate funds to all the works, but she did not specify how much. 

She also said that the terminal will have several levels, but not 30 as previously proposed. 

According to the metro authority’s 2018-30 masterplan, there are six expansion projects planned for the network in the next 10 years, but only two of those involve Observatorio station. 

Source: Metro CDMX

Mexico City-Toluca interurban rail line

Meanwhile, work on the interurban rail line continues and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is providing updates about its progress every Monday. 

More than 50% of the rail line’s civil works will be completed in 2021, SCT’s director for railways and multimodal developments, Manuel Gómez Parra, said at a press conference last week. 

That segment is between Zinacantepec station in Toluca to Santa Fe, he said, which represents more than two of the three stretches the overall project was split into. 

Stretch one, which runs 36.3km from Zinacantepec to the tunnel that will connect to the outskirts of Mexico City, reported overall progress of 98.6% on Monday. 

The second stretch, namely the 4.7km tunnel known as Bi Túnel, is already completed.

And stretch three, which will run 16.7km from the tunnel to Observatorio station, is 52% complete. 

The line is expected to be fully completed in 2023, according to SCT, and will transport 234,000 passengers a day with an estimated travel time between the cities of 39 minutes. 

For 2021, the government is proposing allocating 7bn pesos to the rail project. 

Metro line No. 1 modernization

SCT is expected to receive bids this week to supply the city’s oldest metro line with 30 new trains and replace its control system and rail infrastructure.

Authorities were expected to pick a winner in September, but an overwhelming number of questions from interested participants drove them to push back the date. 

The new calendar states that a winner will be picked on November 27 and the contract will be signed on December 18. 

Works on the tracks and electrical system are expected to begin next year, along with the replacement of the current autopilot system (PA-135) with a continuous communications-based train control (CBTC) system and the start of operations of the new trains. 

Among the companies that have shown interest in the project and are expected to bid are China Railway Construction Corporation, French rolling stock manufacturer Alstom and Canadian aircraft and transportation equipment manufacturer Bombardier. 

Photo credit: SCT