Public Transport Volume Reduced by 50 Percent in Mexico City

Life does not stand still easily in a city, not even seeing what lies ahead during a pandemic. Due to the contingency that Mexico City is experiencing, public transportation and the use of private vehicles have decreased by 50 percent, without any restrictions on mobility being put in place so far.

“We have had a reduction in all means of transportation and also the use of private cars. Although in global terms demand has been reduced, our objective is to guarantee that the capacity exists so people can take social distancing measures in most cases,” Minister of Mobility Andrés Lajous said in an interview with Milenio.

Since March 14, the Metro has registered 30 to 40 percent less influx in trains and up to 20 percent in train line connections. Sistema de Transporte Colectivo Metro reported last week that Line 12 registered an influx of 50 percent of its usual demand, while Lines 1, 2, 8, and A operated at 40 percent of their usual demand. According to the Waze platform, private vehicle traffic has reduced during peak demand hours by 70 percent in the morning and 50 percent in the afternoon. 

For the ones still on the streets, SEMOVI has rolled out sanitation measures for 316 Metro trains, 800 buses of the Passenger Transport Network, seven Metrobús lines, 163 trolleybuses, the light rail of the Electric Transport Service, bus stops, more than 6,000 ECOBICI bicycles, parking lots and parking meters. In addition, sanitizing gel is distributed among users. For the more than 100 concessioned bus routes and some 140,000 taxis, SEMOVI is requesting operators to sanitize their units, for which 10,000 informational flyers will be distributed among the microbuses and 20,000 among taxi drivers. Mexico City Governor Claudia Sheinbaum trusted that concessionaires would support these measures and ruled out sanctioning them.

Not Enough Help

On May 28, the President of the Senate’s Human Rights Commission, Kenya López Rabadán, proposed that public transportation in Mexico City were free during the COVID-19 contingency. "For those who do not have a formal income and have to leave their homes daily to provide a livelihood to their homes, measures like free public transportation and the creation of temporary jobs must be implemented," said López Rabadán.

The PAN party senator lobbied for small and medium-sized companies to have exemptions in payments for services and the payroll tax so they are not forced to fire their workforce, since “actions from the government have not been enough,” she said.