Traffic at night in León. Photo by Nathan Gibbs.

The Context

León is a city of 1.3 million residents in the central state of Guanajuato in Mexico. The 430-year-old city is renowned for its leather products and has been nicknamed the "Shoe Capital of the World."

The city found itself on the frontier of public transportation innovation in Mexico when its inaugural bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor launched in 2003, becoming the first Mexican city to implement a BRT system, with 52 buses and 51 stations over 26 kilometers. By 2008, however, ridership on La Oruga—"The Caterpillar," as it is known locally—had exceeded the system's capacity, at 220,000 trips per day. Recognizing there was a strong need for a new model of integrated public transport system, CTS-México agreed to work with local transport authorities to restructure the city's public transportation feeder routes to maintain Optibús’ success.

CTS-México provided technical expertise during the second phase of expansion of the Optibús bus rapid transit system, which included 10 new stations and 5 additional kilometers of bus-only lanes, plus 29 new high-quality articulated buses that are expected to remove more than 100 polluting buses from the road.

The increased integration between bus rapid transit, feeder and auxiliary lines means that Optibús serves about 70% of the city's public transport trips. Today, the city's integrated transport system has the capacity to make 580,000 trips a day.

Key Facts

Source: Observatorio de Movilidad Urbana para América Latina; CTS-México