In the first months of 2023 the trucks announced by the state government to improve public transportation in Merida will begin to arrive, and this Monday some of the routes they will cover and the number of units that will be arriving were announced.
Last Saturday, Governor Mauricio Vila announced a series of actions to improve public transportation in Yucatán, including the arrival of 350 new buses.
Arrival of units in 2023
According to the renewal program announced, 40 Mercedes Benz units will arrive in January 2023, another 65 Mercedes Benz buses will arrive in February and 111 Yutong and 89 Mercedes Benz units will arrive in the first half of next year, for a total of 305 trucks that will arrive in the first months of 2023.
Areas of Merida with new trucks
The areas benefiting from this renovation will be:
- Circuito Metropolitano with 40 vehicles
- Circuito Colonias with 30
- Umán Route with 12
- Naranjos Route (Kanasín) with 19
- Sol-Hacienda (Caucel) with 13
- Juan Pablo, Mulsay and Line 52 North with 34
- Circuito Poniente and plazas with 30
- Tapetes, Chuburná 21, Komchén and Francisco de Montejo route 3 with 65
This makes a total of 243 trucks, of the 305 that will arrive in the first months of 2023.
Routes to police stations
The State Government informed that in the next two years, new routes will be implemented in the commissaries of Mérida, and routes in the municipalities of Tizimín, Tekax and Valladolid.
Also, during the next two years, the expansion of the Periferico Route with 2 new buses, the expansion of 4 night routes, and the creation of the Airport Route are contemplated.
Progress is also expected on the Ie-Tram, intervention on strategic roads, the establishment of Multimodal Transfer Centers (Cetram) and better trained operators through a Training Center.
Support from concessionaires
The State Government informed that these changes will be achieved thanks to the support of local concessionaires, through 128 million pesos in down payments granted by the State Government, in addition to the implementation of payment per kilometer traveled, which represents the cost of the value of the unit over 7 years.
A press release explained that the last re-engineering of the public transportation routes was carried out in 1997 and the fleet that provides service is more than 16 years old, which makes it one of the oldest in the country.
It points out that the average waiting time for the entire system is 24 minutes, so Merida is above the average values of other Mexican cities in terms of time people wait for the bus.
As of 2019, the total number of routes is 242, operating with 1,724 units between buses and vans, but between 2001 and 2019 the population grew by 46.3%, while the fleet grew by 17%, as it is 16 years old, making it the oldest fleet in Mexico.
TYT Newsroom
