The subway system in Mexico City, the nation’s sprawling capital, handles greater than 4 million passengers a day and is the second-largest within the Americas, after New York City’s. And when it was inaugurated in 1969, adorned with Aztec artifacts and Maya-style friezes, it was the delight of a nation.
But lately it has grow to be a logo of city decay.
There was concern over the integrity of the elevated tracks and assist columns on the stretch of tracks the place Monday’s accident occurred after a powerful earthquake hit Mexico in September 2017.
The elevated infrastructure on the subway line — generally known as Line 12, or the Golden Line — was broken, El Universal newspaper reported.
Later that month, some native residents told El Universal that they feared that the broken line may collapse. The newspaper reported on the time {that a} column between the Olivos and Nopalera stations had suffered structural harm. It additionally reported that engineers have been to conduct an ultrasound survey of the reinforcing metal in 300 columns alongside Line 12’s elevated portion.
It was not instantly clear what work had been carried out to deal with the security considerations. But there has been a broad decline of the system lately.
On Tuesday, social media customers shared photos displaying the poor situation of the transit system, which Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum mentioned can be investigated. “They are right to be upset,” she mentioned.
The Golden Line opened in 2012 and is the latest within the system. Yet from the outset, it has been beset by issues.
Trains working over elevated elements of the observe needed to decelerate for worry they could derail. And simply 17 months after the $2 billion line was inaugurated, the town suspended service on a big a part of it.
Service was later restored, however considerations in regards to the system as an entire have grown.
Florencio Serrania, director of the Mexico City metro, mentioned on Tuesday {that a} French firm, TCO, had been underneath contract since 2016 to examine and preserve the road.
Last month, one other one of many capital’s 12 subway strains shut down after a observe fireplace. And in January, a fire ripped through the metro’s downtown headquarters, killing a police officer and sending 30 others to hospitals with smoke inhalation. Six subway strains have been briefly knocked offline.
Opposition events blamed a scarcity of upkeep for the inferno, and the conservative National Action Party filed a legal criticism in opposition to Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and the pinnacle of the Mexico City subway.
In March 2020, one particular person was killed and not less than 41 others have been injured when two subway trains collided. Ms. Sheinbaum mentioned on the time that one of many trains had apparently backed into the opposite. Video of the wreckage confirmed that the power of the collision had left one of many trains caught on prime of the opposite, according to Reuters.
The subsequent month on the Misterios station, a railway coupler — a mechanism used for becoming a member of prepare automobiles — fractured en path to its vacation spot. Although that resulted in no deaths, employees requested for extra security measures, El Universal reported.
The most up-to-date critical accident occurred in 2015, when a collision of two trains left 12 folks useless. In 1975, one other prepare collision on the Viaducto station killed 31 folks and left greater than 70 injured, according to El Universal.
After the 2015 accident, the German-based firm TÜV Rheinland was employed to look at the circumstances that may have brought on it and recommend enhancements to know-how. The firm completed its work in 2017 and was not concerned in wanting into the power of current constructions, a spokesman mentioned.
“TÜV Rheinland supervised the development of improvement measures to remedy technical problems in systems engineering,” mentioned the spokesman, Jörg Meyer. “Our activities at that time were not related to bridge infrastructure.”
