Guadalajara light rail system

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 (also known as Calzada del Federalismo) replaced what had been C. Moro (but with a much wider right-of-way) and is one of Guadalajara's most major thoroughfares. The 6.6-kilometre (4.1 mi) 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.[2] 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,[5] but trolleybus service continued on other routes and is still in operation. The first light rail line, Line 1, opened on September 1, 1989.[2]

Line 2 runs entirely underground. Oblatos station, 2019

A few years later, Line 2 was constructed, and it opened on July 1, 1994.[2] 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.

Construction of the new Line 3[6] began at the end of 2014. The 21.4-kilometre (13.3 mi) line features a combination of underground (5.3 km (3.3 mi)) and elevated sections (16.1 km (10.0 mi)) and serves 18 stations. It crosses the full length of the city, from Zapopan in the northwest to Tlaquepaque and Tonalá, in the southeast, via the city center.[7]

Unidad Deportiva station, on Line 1

Guadalajara light rail
3  Arco de Zapopan Auditorio  1  Periferico Belenes Periférico Norte Mercado del Mar Dermatológico shops Zapopan Centro Tetlán  2  Atemajac La Aurora Plaza Patria San Jacinto División del Norte San Andrés Circunvalación Country Cristóbal de Oñate Ávila Camacho Oblatos La Normal Belisario Domínguez Santuario San Juan de Dios Mezquitán Guadalajara Centro Refugio Plaza Universidad  2  Juárez Indepencia Sur Mexicaltzingo Plaza de La Bandera Washington Tequila Express to Amatitán Railroad Station CUCEI Santa Filomena Revolución Unidad Deportiva Río Nilo Urdaneta Tlaquepaque Centro 18 de Marzo Lázaro Cárdenas Isla Raza Central de Autobuses  3  Patria España Santuario Mártires de Cristo Rey shops  1  Periférico Sur

Car 002, built in 1988 by Concarril, laying over at the southern terminus of Line 1, Periférico Sur station, in 1990.

The fleet consists of 78 articulated light rail vehicles,[8] each bi-directional ("double-ended") and powered from overhead lines. They have a top speed of 70 km/h (43 mph). Three of the models are the same general type (only the 18 Barcelona Metro 9000 Series units, who operate on the Line 3, are different) three models were built in Mexico, and one model was built in Spain. The first 16 cars were built by Concarril,[2] and using propulsion equipment from Melmex (Mitsubishi Electric of Mexico).[9] 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 (in Ciudad Sahagún) as the earlier batch;[2] 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.

• Trolleybuses in Guadalajara
• Guadalajara Macrobús
• Light rail in North America
• List of North American light rail systems by ridership
• List of Latin American rail transit systems by ridership

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Guadalajara light rail system.

• SITEUR (in Spanish)
• Guadalajara at UrbanRail.net
• Mapa del sistema en Google Earth (in English)