MEXICO CITY — Mexico City has launched the first of what it hopes will be several cable-car lines serving the poorer outskirts of the city of 9 million.
Thursday’s inauguration of the first leg of the “Cablebus” line marks the latest chapter in Latin America’s love affair with cable cars, which are seen in much of the world as largely for travelers and ski slopes.
The neighboring State of Mexico already has a cable car serving one northern Mexico City suburb, and the city’s own first line was additionally built on the poor, crowded north side.
Cable cars are seen as a cheaper, faster way to bring public transport to poor communities situated high up hillsides. Since they’re airborne, the car lines also don’t have as many difficulties with Latin America’s notoriously difficult issues of chaotic development, bad traffic, and lack of rights-of-way.
By June, the line will run nearly 9.2 kilometers (6 miles) from Cuautepec, a working-class neighborhood on the northern edge of Mexico City, to the nearest subway and bus station. The stretch inaugurated Thursday covers just 1.7 kilometers (1.06 miles) of that route, to the neighborhood of Tlalpexco.
At current, officials explained, residents on the top of the hill in Tlalpexco have to board crowded, small vans that travel much more slowly. Plus, they don’t have the nice view the cable cars offer from their big windowed cars that can seat 10 passengers at a time. The cars run on electricity and can travel about 13 miles (20 kilometers) per hour, far faster than most traffic in the city.
“There are almost a million inhabitants living in the space around the Cablebus, and they make their trips in small vans that descend through slim streets, and that may take, from the highest level … as long as 55 minutes or an hour,” Guillermo Calderon, director of {the electrical} transportation system Mexico City.
Traditional transport options like bus or subway lines are almost impossible here, each because there are no rights of way within the densely packed slums, and they are crowded along hillsides on steep 15-degree slopes.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum mentioned a second cable car line is being built in Iztapalapa, another working-class neighborhood, to the east.
“Having the best transportation for the poorest parts of the city reduces inequality,” Sheinbaum mentioned.
Cuautepec resident Evelyn Sánchez mentioned that like most people here, her biggest challenge is getting to the nearest subway station.
“It does take us a long time, and now with this, well now it’ll be a lot faster,” Sánchez mentioned.
The city of Medellin, Colombia, launched its cable cars in 2004. Since then, many other Latin American cities have adopted suit, ranging from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to La Paz, Bolivia.
