MEXICO: The El Insurgente suburban rail service was extended by a further 8·4 km on February 2 from Santa Fe on the western edge of Mexico City to Observatorio, where interchange is provided with metro line 1. In future, the station will also be served by Line 12 via an extension which is now under construction.
The 57·7 km double-track electrified railway links Zinacantepec in the Toluca Valley metropolitan area to the capital. The first section from Lerma to Zinacantepec opened in September 2023, and it was extended to Santa Fe in August 2024.
El Insurgente is equipped with ETCS Level 2, and the maximum operating speed is 80 km/h. It is designed to handle 235 000 passengers per day.
The route was completed 11 years after the groundbreaking ceremony at a total cost of 140bn pesos. The main engineering challenge was crossing the Sierra de las Cruces mountains.
Halving journey time
El Insurgente is operated by a state-owned consortium of the National Infrastructure Trust Fund and the National Bank of Public Works & Services.
Trains run between 05.00 and 00.00, with a 5 to 7 min frequency in peak hours. An end-to-end journey costs 90 pesos and takes less than 1 h, compared to more than 2 h by road in peak hour traffic.
CAF has supplied 30 five-car electric multiple-units from its Civia platform, built at the manufacturer’s Beasain plant in Spain. Of these, 20 are in service on El Insurgente, while the remainder have been allocated to work on the future Tren Suburbano line which is under construction.
The Tren Suburbano’s first section is scheduled to open in March between Mexico City and the Felipe Ángeles International Airport, with the extension to Pachuca expected to follow by early 2027.
