China's mass transit know-how helps Mexico City modernize key metro line

MEXICO CITY -- A key Mexico City subway line has got a modern makeover with the help of China's experience in providing mass transit solutions.

The government of Mexico City, a megalopolis with major mass transit challenges, confirmed Wednesday it took delivery of the first revamped section of Metro Line 1, the city's oldest subway line, following the completion of the project, in which a consortium of companies led by China's CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., Ltd. participated.

The Collective Transportation System, which operates the subway network, will start trial tests of the track, telecommunications, signaling and empty-train systems immediately, the local government said in a statement.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum was on hand Tuesday for the delivery of the modernized tract, which runs from the Isabel La Catolica station in the city's historic downtown area and eastward to the Pantitlan station, one of the biggest transit hubs in the world.

At the handover ceremony, the mayor announced the trial runs would take place with a new train delivered by CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive, which in July 2022 delivered the first of 29 state-of-the-art trains ordered by the city for its revamped line this year.

"We have finished the civil construction work on the new Line 1 of the Metro. It has been a titanic job ... it has been done in record time. There is no such example anywhere else in the world because, in reality, we are building a new line of the Metro," said Sheinbaum.

The modernization project involved rehabilitating station interiors and renovating elevators, lamps and tactile paving.

Work on the second section will begin in July and is expected to conclude before the end of the year, according to the local government.