Mexico City subway system is flunking

The Mexico City subway , which is one of the 10 most used public transport systems in the world , has stopped being an international benchmark in terms of infrastructure due to the stagnation of its network.

This was revealed in the last report issued by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) , which took into account indicators from all subways in the world, including their number of lines, users, network length, and fleet size.

Regarding infrastructure, the Mexican system has lost its place among the best transport systems in the world due to its lack of growth.

In comparison with the situation registered at the end of 2014 , the Shenzhen subway in China ranked among the top 10 largest systems in the world , replacing the one from Mexico City, the report states.

Ever since, the Mexico City network has not stopped losing ground against other subways in terms of network extension. It now ranks 13th place with 226 kilometers , which is only 5 kilometers more than the subway of Teheran and six more than the one in New Delhi , both of which are undergoing expansion projects.

In this instance, the subway of Shanghai, China, tops the list with 639 kilometers , followed by Beijing, Seoul, London, New York, Guangzhou, Moscow, Madrid , and Shenzhen, which is 286 kilometers long.

The Mexican capital’s public transport system ranks 9th in number of users , with 1,678 million a year . Not far behind is the Hong Kong subway with 1,600 million passengers . The rest is made up of Guangzhou, New Delhi, New York, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Moscow, and Tokyo . The systems of the Japanese and Russian capitals are global leaders in mobility with 3,463 and 2,369 million passengers a year each.

The UITP is considered the maximum authority in urban transport systems; among its members -from 96 countries- we may highlight the Mexican Metro Public Transport System and ADO Group .

According to the institution with headquarters in Brussels, up until December 31st, 2017 , 56 countries in the world had subway lines , with a total of 182 systems , 642 lines , 11,084 stations , and 13,903 kilometers covered . The overall global mobility capacity through this type of transport is of 168 million passengers a day .

In the past six years, Latin America showed modest growth both in mileage and users, despite the fact that “Subway systems are of vital importance for mobility, considering that societies are growing more and more urbanized,” stated the document.

The number of urban travelers has gone from 4,986 million to 5,914 million between 2012 and 2017 , while networks have grown from 809 to 944 kilometers between the years 2013 and 2017 .

This situation stands in contrast with Asia , the most dynamic region in terms of mobility development since the 1970s . The number of transit journeys has grown from 20,887 to 26,690 million between 2012 and 2017 , while in terms of length, it went from 4,815 to 7,218 kilometers.

The UITP predicts that around 200 new subway lines will be built around the world during the next five years, including Sub-Saharan Africa. China, India, and Iran have showed the highest growth since 2015 .

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