A Great Public Transportation Friday

El Insurgente, El Tren Interurbano México–Toluca.

It's good Friday, El Viernes Santo, or to heathens like me, a welcome break from the usually soul crushing traffic in Mexico City. All week long, Semana Santa, with so many Chilangos on holiday, it has been much easier to get around. Except on Cablebús Línea 3, which is where I find myself today.

No one goes there anymore, it's too crowded. Cablebús Línea 3, Los Pinos.

The usually lightly traveled mass transportation ski lift, the newest line in CDMX's ever growing Movilidad Integrada system, is still in its infancy. Still more of a local tourist attraction than the transportation workhorse that it is sure to become in this megacity of 22 million and growing. As more of today's discretionary (leisure) riders experience the time and money and grief saving potential of the system for daily transport, the need for more 10 person coches on the line is sure to grow as it has on CDMX's two other cablebús lines at Indios Verdes and Iztapalapa.

On this Great Public Transportation Friday, Cablebús Línea 3 from Los Pinos to Vasco de Quiroga in Santa Fe is already the second leg of my travels. I started on an Ecobici bike near my apartment at Metro Chapultepec. Whenever I can (and whenever there are docks where I am going), Ecobici (with a helmet!) is my go-to means of transportation in Mexico City.

Though I have yet to bike to every dock in CDMX as I once did on Citi Bike in New York City, I have been to a lot of Ecobici docks.

Living near Bosque de Chapultepec, a constant feast for the eyes and soul, has been the gift that keeps giving. And it is just a short ride, with Ecobici docks on both ends of the trip, from Metro Chapultepec to Cablebús at Los Pinos.

Just another Good Friday in Bosque de Chapultepec.

But I digress. Once on Cablebús, the 7 peso (about US 35 cents) trip takes me to old Santa Fe's one-time main street where I catch a local bus for another 7 pesos to Santa Fe's tony Centro Comercial and the train to Toluca. The local bus on Vasco de Quiroga is often busy and, though it's a holiday, today is no exception. I can't cram onto the first one that passes but the second bus to arrive is less packed and I am on it.

The bus on Vasco de Quiroga from Cablebús Línea 3 to Santa Fe's Centro Comercial.

Perhaps my favorite part of the ride today and whenever I take a crowded local bus in CDMX, is the ritual of the hand-to-hand passing of the bus fare of riders who board from the back of the bus. The honor system works. And sometimes the change from a 10 peso coin passed to the driver, even travels back the other way.

El Insurgente: Tren Interurbano México–Toluca

Since El Insurgente, the Tren Interurbano México–Toluca line has not yet been extended to CDMX's Metro Observatorio, my multimodal commute is the most convenient way to get to the train from my apartment.

After the bumpy fifteen minute ride up Vasco de Quiroga, I exit the bus and head across the street to the train station in Santa Fe's modern Centro Comercial.

The Centro Comercial is the sort of place most North Americans would never imagine exists in México. All modern glass and steel architecture with a rail station that would be the envy of many North American cities.

Santa Fe, from Parque La Mexicana.

On the one hand, Good Friday was possibly not the best day to experience the new train to Toluca. On the other hand, it was a perfect day to experience the train, packed with holiday riders.

Standing room only on El Insurgente, the Tren Interurbano México–Toluca.

Once aboard the train which departs every 15 minutes with Swiss precision, the ride is smooth and beautiful as it leaves modern Santa Fe and climbs through the green mountains west of CDMX. Again, I found myself thinking that this is a landscape that would surprise and impress many North Americans whose idea of Mexico is a bachelor party in Tijuana or an episode of Sicarios.

From the window of the train between Santa Fe and Toluca.

At 60 pesos (about US$3), each way, the train es destino turistico as one rider told me. There is no eating or drinking on the trains and I got dinged by the private security guard for taking a swig from my water bottle. Thankfully the guard simply slapped my wrist rather than threw me off the clean, fast train. As the line's payment system is linked to CDMX's Movilidad Integrada card (as well as the State of Mexico's Movimex fare card), on my return trip I used my fare card to pay and avoided the ticket line.

At the recommendation of a fellow Mexico-phile, I rode as far as Metepec, a pretty pueblito close to Toluca Centro. Inflation strikes outside of CDMX and the bus from Estación Metepec to Metepec Centro costs 12 pesos (about US 60 cents).

It wasn't until I arrived in the Centro that it dawned on me again that it was Good Friday. The zócalo was packed and a large stage was set up with actors dressed like Roman soldiers. Making my way up a side street, I found myself along Metepec's reenactment of the 14 stations of the cross.

Roman soldiers and their prisoner. Good Friday in Metepec.

While the train to Toluca and Cablebús may lack the grace of Metepec's Spanish colonial architecture, the country's commitment to improving public transportation is impressive and I am bullish on ridership on the new lines dramatically expanding over time.

Metepec, Estado de México.

Quoting a frequent rider about the new train, es un maravilla.

Yours in transit,

Joel