Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico – The Mexican government has completed construction works on a 31.5bn-peso (US$1.6bn) light rail line in Jalisco state that will nearly double the current size of the light rail system in the greater Guadalajara area.
At his Monday morning press conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) confirmed that the Guadalajara light rail line No. 3 – a project that was started six years ago by former president Enrique Peña Nieto – was finally completed in December.
The third line has a total length of 21.5km and crosses the municipalities of Zapopan, Guadalajara and Tlaquepaque with two 8km stretches of elevated tracks and a 5.3km underground section. It has 18 stations and will connect with the existing lines No. 1 and No. 2 of Guadalajara’s light rail system.
“Line 3 is the most extensive line and it increases the total length of Guadalajara’s light rail system by around 85 percent,” Transportation and Communications Secretary Javier Jiménez Espriú said at the press conference.
“The project began in 2014 and its conclusion was planned for 2017. It started with an original investment of 18.8bn pesos, which increased to 20bn pesos almost immediately… However, due to delays in construction, obstacles and lack of details, the final cost came to 31.5bn pesos,” he explained, adding that the AMLO administration had allotted a total of 4.5bn pesos to the project.
18 trains capable of transporting 700 passengers per trip will operate on the new line, which will transport around 233,000 passengers per day and benefit some 5 million residents. It is currently undergoing operational inspections and is expected to be operational in April.
Sources: El Razon • BN Americas
