Workmen drilled a large hole in the ground on Avenida Juan Pablo II at the traffic circle facing the Mercardo de Mar (wholesale fish market), signifying the start of the 35-billion peso project.
The 22-kilometer line will run from the northern Periferico (beltway) at Avenida Laureles to the Mercado del Mar (fish market), through Zapopan Centro and along Avenida Camacho and Alcalde to the Guadalajara city center. It will continue along Avenida Revolucion to the Zapotlanejo highway and terminate at the Neuvo Central Camionera.
Only five of the 18 stations will be underground.
Trains are expected to carry an estimated 233,000 passengers each day.
Mexico’s Communications and Transport Minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza promised that the line would be finished on time in 2017. He said thanks to the line, thousands of citizens will be able to spend more time with their families and less time traveling to and from their places of work.
Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval said the subway line would take 10,000 vehicles out of circulation and reduce annual carbon emissions by 17,000 tons.
Sandoval dismissed claims that building a predominately elevated subway line is an regressive environmental step.
While green groups in Guadalajara favor the principle of a new subway line, many have expressed serious doubts about the way the Jalisco government is going about implementing the project. One prominent group, Ciudad de Todos, has criticized the lack of transparency surrounding the project, as well as the absence of input from citizens. Unless the project is part of a wider initiative to lessen the dependence on the automobile, as well as other non-motorized transportation solutions, it may not have any beneficial effect in the long-term, and may even be detrimental to the lives of city dwellers, Ciudad de Todos notes.