Mexico City subway line hailed

McClatchy Newspapers

Published Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012

MEXICO CITY – For hundreds of thousands of Mexico City residents, daily life grew less arduous and less expensive Tuesday with the inauguration of a new subway line that reaches deep into poor districts of one of the world's biggest metropolises.

The mostly underground line, which cost nearly $2 billion to build, will shave average daily commute times from about 150 minutes to 78 minutes for riders who take the speedy train. The reduction in time comes from taking riders off buses that crawl along congested streets.

"The importance of returning an hour of their day to people to use as they please is probably one of the greatest social and personal impacts of a project like this," President Felipe Calderón said.

The project also is expected to help improve the capital's air quality, by eliminating 860 buses from the city's streets.

The new line, Calderón said, "means a massive reduction" in vehicle traffic: "It is estimated that we'll save 22,000 tons a year of carbon dioxide emissions with this mass transit project."

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