Mexico: Getting around

26/03/2015

Not easy every day, the life of a Mexican... whichever way you choose to travel.

The metro, buses and Metrobús run reasonably often and cover the areas I had to get around in pretty well. The only problem is that they're very often packed.

Between 6.30pm and gone 9pm, depending on the station, there can be several layers of passengers massed together waiting for the next carriage, and when it arrives it's already full to the brim (that isn't a figure of speech), so much so that you think nobody could possibly get on.. but there's always one or two who manage to push in even further. It's hard going... There are plenty of trains and buses running, to be fair, and the frequency is good, but the least you can say is that they don't hang about: I timed 5 seconds between the carriage stopping (door opening included) and the chime announcing the doors closing, 5 seconds later... that's short. So Mexicans don't trouble themselves too much with niceties like letting people off before getting on, or not shoving on the way out... it's a bit hardcore, but then again, if you wait for everyone to get off before getting on, you can be standing on that platform a long time. This morning I was on the bus and it made me laugh: I ring for my stop, the door opens while the bus is still slowing down, and it's already accelerating again before I've got a foot on the ground... True story :D.

Alongside all that, they don't stand to the right when they're not walking up the escalator :-D (whatever you do, don't try that in Paris :-D ).