Monterey, NL. The Nuevo León public transport system is recovering from the drop in the number of users caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, however, it has not yet reached a pre-pandemic level. In the month of February 2022, the number of users was 12.4 million, 2.5% more than in the previous month and an annual advance of 41.8%, according to the Urban Passenger Transport Statistics of the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (Inegi).
In February 2020, a month before the pandemic began, 19.6 million users moved through the collective transport system Metrorrey, Metrobus and TransmetroAs of the same month last year, the figure fell to 8.7 million passengers, mainly due to capacity limitations due to Covid-19.
In this city, people who traveled by public transport mainly used the Metrorrey Collective Transport System, which served 9.7 million users in the second month of 2022, followed by the transmetro that transported 1.8 million people and the Metrobus to 821,500 passengers.
Unlike other cities such as Mexico City and Guadalajara, in Nuevo León there is no data on how many passengers are transported by the Passenger Transport Network.
In Mexico City, there are 111.1 million passengers transported by the Passenger Transport Network, Metro, Light Rail, Trolleybus and Metrobus. In Guadalajara, the total number of passengers transported was 14.4 million, who traveled by Trolleybus, Electric Train, Macrobus, trunk service, Macrobus feeder service and Comprehensive Light Rail System.
Transport restructuring
On March 17, the Secretary of Mobility and Urban Planning, Hernán Villarreal, indicated that as part of the transport restructuring in which he is working, the gradual migration to electronic payment is contemplated, which will begin to be applied from the arrival of the first 100 new natural gas-based transport units, scheduled for April 25, in which payment in cash will not be accepted.
One part of the restructuring will be the construction of three new subway lines. Line 4 will have an extension of 41 kilometers with more than 41 stations; line 5 contemplates an extension of 13.6 kilometers and 14 stations on the line, while line 6 will be 5.5 kilometers and nine stations and 18.9 kilometers.
Regarding the cost of public transport, the Secretary of Mobility and Urban Planning assured that there will be no increase in rates, only the payment scheme for carriers will change, for costs and not for passage. But the cost of prepaid cards per week has yet to be defined.