Mexico City pledges to complete elevated trolleybus line by April

Mexico City authorities have promised to complete in six months a 2.9bn-peso (US$136mn) elevated trolleybus project on which construction began in May.

The capital’s public works ministry (Sobse) announced on Thursday that the 7.4km route running alongside the eastern Ermita Iztapalapa boulevard would be completed by April 2021. The project is 14% complete, Sobse said.

City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the week, said in a video conference that the 5m-high line would be the first of its kind in the city.

It will have 10 stations, connecting the Constitución de 1917 modal transfer center (Cetram) and Mexico City’s autonomous university UACM. The line will pass through the capital’s most populated borough, Iztapalapa. 

Fuente: Sobse 

At the Cetram, the route will connect with line No. 8 of the city’s metro system and the under-construction US$207mn line No. 2 of the cable-car system Cablebús that is also expected to be completed next year. 

The project was divided into three stretches and two stages of construction. The first stage was awarded in May to Impulsora de Desarrollo Integral (Indisa).

The government has purchased 50 electric trolleybuses that will be used on the lone for 680mn pesos, officials said. 

The elevated project is projected to transport 76,000 passengers in a day.