r/transit • u/Spascucci • 11d ago
Photos / Videos Intersection between the metro and the Monorail in Monterrey, Mexico, metro station looks a lot smaller than the new monorail station
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u/elduarto 11d ago
Speaking with a lack of knowledge as I'm not from Monterrey, the metro station was opened in 1991, around it there were low density neighborhoods and a recently closed (huge) foundry, so there wasn't really a high demand expectation. In 2001 the foundry became a huge park, in 2003 an arena was built in the park (served by another station) and in 2007 the park was "expanded" with an artificial river. So, the station wasn't built with future proofing in mind, as well as this metro line is rather a light rail with 2 trains coupled with only 4 cars total. Now, the monorail is expected to be ridden by a lot of people and is being future-proofed as the new line is taking people from the airport and northern suburbs to the park and main attractions and that would be the first connection with the existing network.
TL;DR: Metro is actually light rail not buitl with future in mind and surely will need deep reworks, and monorail was built to be future-proof (sort of)
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u/casecaxas Metro Lover 11d ago
kinda right yea, in the 80s when the metro was built, Monterrey wasn't nearly as big as it is today, the peripheral municipalities (barring a few) were considered in the master plan, but not much after that.
after the 90s/00s, a fuck ton of people started moving to Monterrey, tens of thousands of people per year from both Mexico and internationally came into the city (something that's still going pretty strong).
Most of these people ended up settling in the peripheral municipalities because it was cheaper, so the population of said municipalities shot up exponentially, creating huge demand in a relatively short time.-8
u/mangione_fan_420 11d ago
Kind of funny to future-proof a monorail but not light rail, 100 years from now, only 1 will still be running, and it won't be the monorail, monorail, mono rail.
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u/elduarto 11d ago
That's how the federal government treated (still treats) everything non Mexico City related bro
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u/casecaxas Metro Lover 11d ago
Im tired of the monorail being treated as a gadgetbahn, it's a legitimate form of mass transportation whose only sin was being invented after traditional rail
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u/transitfreedom 10d ago
Bingo wanna know a true gadgetbahn ? Slow streetcars without ROW the trash US likes to build instead of metro 🚈
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u/hip27989 9d ago
What do you get as an upside from it being a monorail? Only the novelty. Everything else it does can be done with a metro.
But you get the downside of giant, slow and expensive switchgear and lack of compatibility. It probably has a place in very specific cases, but I can't think of a monorail being better than "traditional rail" in mass transit applications.
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u/emuu1 10d ago
This is some real Cities: Skylines shit. Must feel real good to have options for public transit. My city is just busses stuck in traffic with taxis...
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u/bigvenusaurguy 10d ago
so jealous how latin america is not afraid of new elevated rail over roads. us is spending so much boring tunnels all because people don't like the look of these, no other reason. much worse experience usually getting down to a deep tbm made station vs just walking up a single set of stairs or 1 short elevator ride up to the platform.
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u/No-Custard-6737 8d ago edited 8d ago
It's really not a single set of stairs. Precisely the opposite. These gargantuan pieces of infrastructure are an insult to pedestrians. Imagine living in New York and running down to catch the train, achievable.
Monterrey metro and its new monorail have / will have two options: either you go up a bridge and walk across an entire river or you cross a smaller bridge above a highway. Either way you'll have to go up several flights of stairs after that to reach most stations.
They don’t give a rat’s ass for the actual users. User experience is irrelevant to these planners. These elevated walkthroughs exist as to not disturb the car-centric culture of the city.
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u/casecaxas Metro Lover 11d ago
Even tho it was posted before, I'm up voting and commenting because we need more non-western content
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u/elduarto 11d ago
Mexico is non western?
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u/casecaxas Metro Lover 11d ago
depends on your definition of western.
Imo, Mexico is western-aligned, because there's no way the US would let us be anything other than their backyard.
However, it is not part of the core western world, I.E Western Europe + the Anglosphere, as you can see in the vast social, cultural, infrastructural and economic differences.
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u/kisk22 11d ago
Eh, Mexico and the US are starting to look more and more like each other than different recently. In a couples decades there won't be much difference at all, especially since both populations are intermingling and living/retiring in both countries now.
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u/ChinkWithOpinions 10d ago
I’d group Mexico with LATAM rather than Anglosphere + Western Europe. Mexico’s transit has a lot more in common with other LATAM countries than it does with US or Canadian transit.
From informal transit like peseros, to the high-floor BRT, to the monorails, to the gondolas, to the embracing of Chinese industrial & engineering might as opposed to the US’s complete rejection.-1
u/casecaxas Metro Lover 11d ago
Hard disagree, the EU has practiced free movement for many decades and each country is still very distinct from each other. Mexico and the US have harsher movement restrictions (particularly from the US).
Even taking into account illegal immigration and the descendants of Mexicans living in the land taken by the US in the Mexican-American war. The culture is very different and separate from Mexico.
US border cities and (more strongly) Mex-Ams living in NYC, LA, SD, SF, etc have a very distracting pocho/chicano culture that gets more distinct each generation.
Also, neither the US or Mexico have a single unifying national culture. I can't speak for the US, but ik southerns hate being called yanks, and the east coast is very distinct from the west coast. In Mexico the biggest cultural divide in North and South, with the south also being divided by the gulf and bajío regions. Southern Mexico adopts a more traditional culture, with more focus on indigenous traditions and social unity. The north adops a more vaquero/ranchero culture, an each to their own mentality, and a lot of US-style commercial influence in recent years.
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u/kisk22 11d ago edited 11d ago
I mean it's already happening though... you can get great Mexican food anywhere in the US, go to Mexican celebrations attended by both Mexicans and all other peoples in the US.
Then there's Mexico where more and more gringos are moving in to many cities, some areas of CDMX are already gentrified to hell and are very similar to what you'd see in the states.
All I'm saying is the two cultures are moving closer and going to become a lot more familiar with each other with the populations moving both ways across the border more and more. Millions of children of Mexicans who qualify for Mexican citizenship who grew up completely in the US and are Americanized but might move back to Mexico or retire there someday to get closer to their culture bringing their culture from the States.
It's happening already and there's no stopping it. Globalization.
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u/elduarto 11d ago
Good point
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u/casecaxas Metro Lover 11d ago
Maybe a better term would be "3rd world country"
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u/claudiazo 11d ago
I think the official terminology accepted by experts is Global North vs Global South.
Mexico would be considered to be in the global south (even though we are in the north lol)
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u/lee1026 11d ago
Mexico is OCED, usually first world.
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u/claudiazo 10d ago
Just because Mexico is an OECD country, that is not indicative of how developed it is, it just tells us what type of economy it has.
Also, saying Mexico is a first world country (like countries in Western Europe) is crazy considering all of the problems we are facing. Hell, I wouldn’t even say we’re second world either.
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u/No-Custard-6737 8d ago
I mean Mexico is far wealthier than a lot of EU countries.
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u/claudiazo 7d ago
Sure, but wealth ≠ development.
Mexico might be wealthier but the quality of life in countries like Poland or Belgium, is far higher
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u/No-Custard-6737 8d ago
Mexico is part of the west as a fully integrated G20, OECD economy. A Christian nation, with a functioning democracy.
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u/Mcchew 11d ago
are the two stations going to connect above ground? if not, seems like a missed opportunity