The Aerotrén is a

people mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...

cable-propelled operating at

Mexico City International Airport Mexico City International Airport ( es, link=yes, Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México, AICM); officially ''Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez'' (Benito Juárez International Airport) is the main international airport serving ...

, near

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. The automated people mover (APM) provides a link between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. Opened in 2007, it was part of the major expansion to the airport, which is the busiest in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

. The link is only designed to transfer passengers connecting between flights, who must be in possession of and show a valid boarding pass.

Background

The Aerotrén airport link at Benito Juarez International Airport connects Terminal 1 with the new Terminal 2 which had been constructed on the opposite end of the runway from the existing terminal. The system is able to transport 540 transfer

passengers per hour per direction Passengers per hour per direction (p/h/d), passengers per hour in peak direction (pphpd) or corridor capacity is a measure of the route capacity of a rapid transit or public transport system. Definition The corridor capacity in the passenger t ...

(pphpd).

Construction

The Mexico City International Airport Automated People Mover System Project was started on August 12, 2005 when a contract was signed between the airport owners

Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares (ASA) is a Mexican Federal Government-owned corporation with its own equity capital and legal identity. It has its headquarters in Mexico City in Venustiano Carranza, D.F., Venustiano Carranza, Mexico City. It wa ...

(ASA) and

DCC Doppelmayr Cable Car Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group is an international manufacturer of ropeways and people movers for ski areas, urban transport, amusement parks, and material handling systems. As of 2019, the group have produced over 15,000 installations in 96 countr ...

. The system was completed by November 2007 at a price of €52 million. The system was built and designed in a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

with ' (ICA), Mexico's largest construction company. The area around Mexico City suffers from soil settlement, and this had to be allowed for. The elevated

guideway An automated guideway transit (AGT) or automated fixed-guideway transit or automatic guideway transit system is a type of fixed guideway transit infrastructure with a riding or suspension track that supports and physically guides one or more dr ...

structure has the ability to be adjusted for ground settlements. Steel adapters between the steel truss and the concrete columns allow later height adjustments to compensate for any ground movement.

Technology

A single-track, single train,

Cable Liner The Cable Liner is a range of automated people mover products designed by Doppelmayr Cable Car for use at airports, in city centers, intermodal passenger transport connections, park and ride facilities, campuses, resorts and amusement parks. The ...

Shuttle design was chosen. The installed system is in length and operates at a speed of between the two terminal stations. Vehicles connected to a cable, driven from under one of the stations, that propels, accelerates, and decelerates the train. The train is composed of four cars, each holding 26 passengers and making of a total of 104 passengers per train. An option was included for lengthening the original four car train to six cars, providing an increase from 540 pphpd up to 800 pphpd.

Operations

Only connecting passengers can use the system, who must have a valid flight boarding pass to board. Travel time is 5:45 minutes and the train pauses (dwells) for 60 seconds on each station. When the system closes for maintenance, passengers are ferried between both terminals in buses.

References

External links