Balbuena metro station is a

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

of the

Mexico City Metro The Mexico City Metro ( es, Metro de la Ciudad de México) is a rapid transit system that serves the metropolitan area of Mexico City, including some municipalities in Mexico State. Operated by the Sistema de Transporte Colectivo (STC), it is ...

Venustiano Carranza José Venustiano Carranza de la Garza (; 29 December 1859 – 21 May 1920) was a Mexican wealthy land owner and politician who was Governor of Coahuila when the constitutionally elected president Francisco I. Madero was overthrown in a February ...

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 ...

. It is an underground station with two

side platforms A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

served by Line 1 (the Pink Line) between Moctezuma and Boulevard Puerto Aéreo stations. It serves the '' colonias'' (neighborhoods) of

Jardín Balbuena Jardín Balbuena is a neighborhood in Venustiano Carranza, Mexico City, east of the historic center. The neighborhood was developed in the early 1950s and most of its infrastructure was designed by architects Mario Pani and Agustín Landa Verdugo. ...

and Moctezuma 1ª sección, along Calzada Ignacio Zaragoza. The station's pictogram features the silhouette of four flowers with four petals each, in reference to the Balbuena Garden, found in the neighborhood of the same name, and from which the station takes its name. Balbuena station opened on 4 September 1969 with service westward toward

Chapultepec Chapultepec, more commonly called the "Bosque de Chapultepec" (Chapultepec Forest) in Mexico City, is one of the largest city parks in Mexico, measuring in total just over 686 hectares (1,695 acres). Centered on a rock formation called Chapultep ...

and eastward toward

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

. In 2019, the station had an average daily ridership of 13,431 passengers, making it the 133rd busiest station in the network and the second least used on the line. The facilities are partially accessible to people with disabilities as there are

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...

s and access ramps. From July 2022 to October 2023, the station was closed due to modernization works on the tunnel and the line's technical equipment.

Location

Balbuena is a

metro station A metro station or subway station is a station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase Train ticket, tickets, board trains, and Emergency eva ...

located along Calzada Ignacio Zaragoza, in

. The station serves the ''colonias'' (

Mexican Spanish Mexican Spanish ( es, español mexicano) is the variety of Dialect, dialects and Sociolect, sociolects of the Spanish language spoken in Mexican territory. Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers, with more than twice as many as in a ...

for "neighborhoods") of

and Moctezuma 1ª sección. Within the system, the station lies between Moctezuma and Boulevard Puerto Aéreo. The area is serviced by a

Centro de transferencia modal A ''centro de transferencia modal'' (English: Modal Transfer Center; abbreviated as CETRAM), is a type of transport hub found mainly in Mexico City. Locally known as ''paraderos'' (English: bus or rail terminal stops), these intermodal passenger t ...

(CETRAM), a type of

transport hub A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. F ...

Exits

There are two exits: *North: Calzada Ignacio Zaragoza and 17 Street, Moctezuma 1ª sección. *South: Calzada Ignacio Zaragoza and De la Portilla Avenue,

History and construction

Line 1 of the Mexico City Metro was built by Ingeniería de Sistemas de Transportes Metropolitano, Electrometro and Cometro, the latter a subsidiary of

Empresas ICA Empresas ICA is a construction company that was founded on 4 July 1947, by Mexican civil engineer Bernardo Quintana Arrioja. The company has built multiple landmarks, buildings, and facilities in Mexico, including the Estadio Azteca, the modern ...

. Its first section opened on 4 September 1969, operating from

stations. Balbuena is an underground station that has a partially disabled-accessible service with

s and access ramps. The station's pictogram features silhouettes of four flowers with four petals each referencing the neighborhood's garden of the same name. In turn, the garden was named after

Bernardo de Balbuena Bernardo de Balbuena (c. 1561 in Valdepeñas, Spain – October 1627, in San Juan, Puerto Rico) was a Spanish poet. He was the first of a long series of Latin American poets who extolled the special beauties of the New World. Life Born in Val ...

, a Spanish poet whose work includes "La grandeza mexicana" ("The Grandeur of Mexico"). The Balbuena–Boulevard Puerto Aéreo tunnel is long, while the Balbuena–Moctezuma section measures . In 2016, the station received renovation works; these included the addition of antibacterial porcelain sheeting and the installation of

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...

lighting technology, as well as the sealing of leaks and the replacement of electrical panels. On 20 January 2021, the station was flooded with

sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residenc ...

following a failure in the

sump A sump is a low space that collects often undesirable liquids such as water or chemicals. A sump can also be an infiltration basin used to manage surface runoff water and recharge underground aquifers. Sump can also refer to an area in a cave ...

system attributed to power outages caused by the PCCI fire that occurred two weeks earlier. The station was closed on 11 July 2022 for modernization work on the tunnel and technical equipment of the line. Authorities reopened it fifteen months later, on 29 October 2023.

Ridership

According to the data provided by the authorities since the 2000s, and before the

impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public transport The COVID-19 pandemic had a large impact on public transport. Many countries advised that public transport should only be used when essential; passenger numbers fell drastically, and services were reduced. Provision of a reasonable service for t ...

, commuters averaged per year between 12,400 and 15,700 daily entrances between 2013 and 2019; the station had a ridership of 4,902,639 passengers in 2019, which was an increase of 111,634 passengers compared to 2018. Also in 2019, Balbuena metro station was the 133rd busiest station of the system's 195 stations, and it was the line's second least used.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balbuena 1969 establishments in Mexico Accessible Mexico City Metro stations Mexico City Metro Line 1 stations Mexico City Metro stations in Venustiano Carranza, Mexico City Railway stations located underground in Mexico Railway stations opened in 1969