Mexico City Metro Line B is one of the twelve

metro Metro may refer to: Geography * Metro City (Indonesia), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban area with high ...

lines operating in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. It has 21 stations and a total length of , service the line while the rest are used for maneuvers. Line B runs from downtown Mexico City north towards the municipality of

Ecatepec de Morelos Ecatepec (), officially Ecatepec de Morelos, is a municipality in the State of Mexico situated in the north of the Greater Mexico City urban area. The municipal seat is San Cristóbal Ecatepec. The city of Ecatepec is co-extensive with the mun ...

. Currently, it is the only line in the whole metro network to use two distinctive colors: green and gray. Alongside Line 12, Line B is one of the two metro lines of the

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

to have the three type of stations: underground, elevated and surface.

History

Line B was planned as a feeder line that would connect

to the adjacent municipalities of the

State of Mexico The State of Mexico, officially just Mexico, is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Colloquially known as Edomex (from , the abbreviation of , and ), to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is the mo ...

, such as

and

Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl Nezahualcóyotl (), or more commonly Neza, is a city and municipal seat of the municipalities of Mexico, municipality of Nezahualcóyotl in Mexico. It is located in the List of states of Mexico, state of State of Mexico, Mexico, adjacent to the ...

, therefore, instead of using the same numbering system as with the other metro lines, the line was named as Line B, same as in Line A, which connects Mexico City with the municipality of

La Paz La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...

, also in the State of Mexico. Line B was conceived in the early 1990s and was to originally named as Line 10. The 1994 Mexican peso crisis affected the construction of the line on its first stages as well as opposition from the citizens, specially those living in

Santa María la Ribera Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Chris ...

, who claimed that Line B construction affected their houses, with damages such as sinking and breakage. The first stretch of the line, from Buenavista to Villa de Aragón, was inaugurated on 15 December 1999 by

Ernesto Zedillo Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León (; born 27 December 1951) is a Mexican economist and politician. He was the 61st president of Mexico from 1994 to 2000, as the last of the uninterrupted 71-year line of Mexican presidents from the Institutional Re ...

President of Mexico The president of Mexico (), officially the president of the United Mexican States (), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Constitution of Mexico, the president heads the executive branch of the federal government and ...

from 1994 to 2000, and

Rosario Robles María del Rosario Robles Berlanga (; born 17 February 1956) is a Mexican politician who served as the Secretary of Social Development in the cabinet of President Enrique Peña Nieto. She also was substitute Head of Government of the Federal ...

Head of Government of the Federal District The head of government () wields executive power in Mexico City. The head of government serves a six-year term, running concurrently with that of the president of the Republic. Mexico City, or CDMX, is the seat of national government, and is l ...

from 1991 to 2000. The second section, from Villa de Aragón to Ciudad Azteca, was opened on 30 November 2000, six years after it was planned. An extension for Line B is planned, adding two more stations to expand the line westbound towards Colegio Militar, where line B would connect with Line 2.

Chronology

*15 December 1999: from Villa de Aragón to Buenavista *30 November 2000: from Ciudad Azteca to Nezahualcóyotl

Rolling stock

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

MP-68: 1999–present Currently, out of the 390 trains in the

Mexico City Metro The Mexico City Metro () is a rapid transit system that serves Greater Mexico City, the metropolitan area of Mexico City, including some municipalities in the State of Mexico. Operated by the Sistema de Transporte Colectivo (STC), it is the Lis ...

network, 36 are in service in Line B.

Station list

The stations from east to west and from south to north.

Renamed stations

Ridership

The following table shows each of Line B stations total and average daily ridership during 2019.

Tourism

Line B passes near several places of interest: *

Plaza Garibaldi Plaza Garibaldi is located in monumental downtown, Mexico City, on Eje Central (Lázaro Cárdenas) between historic Calle República de Honduras and Calle República de Peru, a few blocks north of the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The original name o ...

, a square known as Mexico City's home of

mariachi music Mariachi (, , ) is a genre of regional Mexican music dating back to at least the 18th century, evolving over time in the countryside of various regions of western Mexico. The usual mariachi group today consists of as many as eight violins, two ...

where mariachi bands can be found playing or soliciting gigs from visitors. *

Historic center of Mexico City The historic center of Mexico City (), also known as the Centro or Centro Histórico, is the central neighborhood in Mexico City, Mexico, focused on the Zócalo (or main plaza) and extending in all directions for a number of blocks, with its fart ...

Crime

On its route, Line B passes through some places known for their levels of crime including

, Gustavo A. Madero,

Venustiano Carranza José Venustiano Carranza de la Garza (; 29 December 1859 – 21 May 1920), known as Venustiano Carranza, was a Mexican land owner and politician who served as President of Mexico from 1917 until his assassination in 1920, during the Mexican Re ...

, and neighborhoods such as

Tepito Tepito is a barrio located in Colonia Morelos in Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City, Cuauhtémoc, a Boroughs of Mexico, borough of Mexico City bordered by Avenida del Trabajo, Paseo de la Reforma, Eje 1 and Eje 2. Most of the neighborhood is taken up by th ...

and

Colonia Morelos Colonia Morelos is a colonia (Mexico), colonia located just north of the historic center of Mexico City in the Cuauhtémoc, D.F., Cuauhtémoc borough. It has been a poor area since Aztec times, with many residents today living in large tenements c ...

. Due to this, the line has a high rate of crime inside the stations and the trains, going from the presence of pickpockets and petty theft to armed robbery and sexual assault. In 2017, at least three violent robberies were reported, in which armed men entered the wagons and stripped the passengers out of their belongings.

Notes

References

{{Mexico City transport network 1999 establishments in Mexico B Railway lines opened in 1999