Two Mexican BRT projects enter final construction stage

Overcoming several delays, the 1.5bn-peso (US$61mn) Metrobús Laguna BRT system in Mexico’s Coahuila state and the 9.4bn-peso Mi Macro Periférico in Jalisco state’s Guadalajara have entered the final construction stages.

They are expected to start operations this year and next, respectively. 

Although the federal government was involved in construction and financing, the projects were mostly supervised by the local governments.

Metrobús Laguna

Development bank Banobras has extended the deadline to start operations to October 2022. 

Coahuila’s infrastructure, urban development and mobility minister Miguel Algara Acosta told daily Milenio recently that his ministry requested the extension. 

“I met with Banobras representatives in Mexico City and proposed to them moving the deadline, which they agreed to push forward to October. They were told that there were two aspects that have marked the project. These are the cancellation of the Durango stretch that represented almost half of the corridor and the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. 

Banobras’ original deadline, defined in 2016 when approving the financing, was October 2019.

Although federal sanctions were part of the deal if the deadline could not be complied with, several extensions have been granted ever since. The last deadline was June 2021.

The 25.5km hydraulic concrete corridor was proposed in 2013 by the Enrique Peña Nieto administration to improve mobility in the Comarca de la Laguna area, which covers the cities of Gómez Palacio in Durango state and Torreón in Coahuila. 

The infrastructure, communications and transportation ministry’s (SICT) original proposal involved a 36km corridor between Lerdo municipality in Durango to the state border and from there to Torreón and Matamoros. 

But the Durango stretch was scratched after a budget cut in December 2014. The part to be opened next year includes two terminals, 58 intermediate stations, two natural gas filling stations, eight pedestrian bridges and underground lanes for vehicles.  

Mi Macro Periférico BRT

The BRT system is expected to start operations in December, Jaliscos’ transport minister Diego Monraz announced in October. 

Works on the project to connect four municipalities of Guadalajara began in November 2019.

In early November, local broadcaster UDGTV reported that Jalisco’s transport ministry (Setran) was carrying out test operations around the existing 60km Anillo Periférico Manuel Gómez Morín beltway where the corridor is being built. 

According to the system’s website, the project’s three stages are already completed. 

The corridor will cover 41.4km of the beltway, with 42 stations and linking light rail line No. 3 and line No. 1.

But the project received bad press due to the extended construction time. In July, newspaper Milenio toured all stations along the route and reported that only eight had been completed, with several lacking access ramps and railings.

Progress is inconsistent at various stations, with some still in the middle of construction and others nearly finished.

The system will have around 800 buses, most of which will be provided by Mercedes-Benz, according to local media reports this month.