Guadalajara light rail system


The Guadalajara light rail system, which is operated by SITEUR, is a light rail system serving the municipalities of Guadalajara, Zapopan and Tlaquepaque, in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. It is owned by the state of Jalisco, and operator SITEUR is a state authority. Opened in 1989, the system currently has two lines: Line 1, running from north to south, with 19 stations, and Line 2, running from the city centre to the east, with 10 stations.

Lines

History

The history of urban trains in Guadalajara dates back to the 19th century, with the first trams pulled by mules, going from the Cathedral to the Templo de la Merced.
In 1974, several houses and streets in the city centre were demolished to make way for a new wide roadway, named Avenida Federalismo, and the construction of a new public-transport tunnel underneath. Avenida Federalismo replaced what had been C. Moro and is one of Guadalajara's most major thoroughfares. The tunnel underneath the avenue was designed for future use by a rail system, but due to a lack of funding at the time, it was initially served by a new trolleybus system, which opened on December 15, 1976. Several years later, work began to convert the trolleybus tunnel and stations for use by a light rail line. The tunnel closed for trolleybuses in early 1988, but trolleybus service continued on other routes and is still in operation. The first light rail line, Line 1, opened on September 1, 1989.
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A few years later, Line 2 was constructed, and it opened on July 1, 1994. Because of the continuing heavy traffic congestion on the city's streets and the large numbers of users of the rail system, there are plans to extend Line 2 to the west and to build a third line.
Line 1 runs underground in the city center, but runs "at grade" north and south of the city center, and its surface sections include several level crossings, protected by crossing gates. The station platforms accommodate trains composed of no more than two cars. Line 2 is entirely underground except for a non-passenger section at its east end, connecting the last station to the maintenance facility. Its stations are long enough to accommodate trains of up to four cars.
The German company Siemens supplied the system engineering, signaling and telecommunication, power supply, and some components of the vehicles.

Line 1

Line 1 runs from north to south. It is long. Line 1 stations are:
Line 2 runs from downtown to east, and is long. Its stations are:
Line 3 under construction from in Tlaquepaque to west, and is long. Its stations are:
The fleet consists of 78 articulated light rail vehicles, each bi-directional and powered from overhead lines. They have a top speed of. Three of the models are the same general type three models were built in Mexico, and one model was built in Spain. The first 16 cars were built by Concarril, and using propulsion equipment from Melmex. For line 2, another 32 cars were ordered, and these came from Bombardier, which had acquired Concarril in 1992 and built this new batch in the same factory as the earlier batch; they have propulsion equipment from Siemens. In 2015 SITEUR ordered 12 more cars who were also from Bombardier for the line 1. Then SITEUR ordered 18 more cars from Alstom for the future line 3. The first batch were model TLG 88,the second were model TEG 90, the third were model TEG 15, and the fourth were Barcelona Metro 9000 Series.
ModelManufacturerYear BuiltOperating Lines
TLG-88Concarril-Melmex 1988Line 2
TEG-90Bombardier-Siemens AG1990Lines 1 and 2
TEG-15Bombardier2015Line 1
Barcelona Metro 9000 SeriesAlstom2002Line 3

Expansion

Construction of the new Line 3 began at the end of 2014. The line will feature a combination of underground and elevated sections and serve 18 stations. It will cross the full length of the city, from Zapopan in the north-west to Tlaquepaque and Tonalá, in the south-east, via the city center. It is expected to open in September 2020.