TIJUANA. -During a breakfast meeting with members of the media, the city's mayor and local government officials revealed in full for the first time, details, blueprints, images, routes and more information on what will be the first phase of a new mass transit system in Tijuana, as well as the future of this new system that looks to modernize the city's mobility once and for all.

The official logo of the new transit system in Tijuana, the SITT

Named by the local government as the Sistema Integral de Transporte de Tijuana (SITT); and is the result of decades of efforts, even though this project started back in 2012 and has had a rough path, with a series of delays and updates since its inception.

It's not just about "modernizing units, but modernizing the whole urban mobility system" said the mayor.

The city's mayor Jorge Astiazarán, secretary of government Bernardo Padilla, director of urban development, Roberto Sánchez Martínez and SITT director, José Alonso López Sepúlveda explained in detail (with the help of a presentation) the main points of what will be the new way of getting around for thousands of Tijuana residents.

VIDEO: SITT presentation and the importance of mobility in Tijuana

Padilla even mentioned the legal and political challenges that they have struggled with in recent years, including legal motions and lawsuits from political rivals and "from other levels of government," to stop construction work, and other unsubstantiated lawsuits filed against stages of the project, with the purpose of delaying the entire system.

The system's bridge that will connect Tijuana's Downtown with the San Ysidro border crossing through the transport system

For years, "public" transit in Tijuana has been managed by local private companies that are regulated by the city government, leading to an inefficient and even corrupt transportation industry that has hampered the city's development for decades. At the same time, bus and taxi driver unions have staunchly opposed any attempts of modernizing public transit.

So it has been a long period of negotiating with these local transit companies, who finally accepted the need to modernize their service and even four local companies have now committed to participate in the project, although all 12 existing companies in the city signed letters confirming their interest in the project. "We even recorded" the meetings with the heads of said companies, said Bernardo Padilla, 160 hours of documented meetings to ensure maximum transparency of the project as well as the discussions with the companies.

An example of a station located on 9th and 10th street

The SITT confirms that they'll work with current transportation companies and not foreign ones, who will form part —together with the local government— of a public company that will manage the system, train personnel who will drive and maintain the units and will be responsible to carry out the project regardless of who is holding office at the time or which transit companies are participating in the project.

It is an investment of over one billion pesos (approximately $60 million 8 hundred dollars), made possible by federal, state and even international resources through development banks, credit loans and money from the city, which is 500 million pesos. (Around $60 thousand 8 hundred dollars.)

Will it be a light rail system, BRT or what?

Those familiar with Mexico City's Metrobus or similar systems in other Mexican cities, the SITT will be basically the same, with some adjustments.

The articulated buses to be used on Route 1, pre-main route (yellow) and feeder route (green)

An initial route with articulated buses (two connected to form a long bus) will travel from the city's Downtown (El Centro district), will pass near the international border and will arrive at the start of the Simón Bolívar boulevard in the eastern part of the city, mostly going through (but not exclusively) the westbound and eastbound Vía Rápida highway.

The first route

There will be 45 stations in total along the 35 km-long Route 1, all with Wi-Fi, ticket vending machines or refilling the travel card, security cameras, turnstiles at the entrance, fiber optic and even TV screens showing the arrival time information of each bus. Both stations and buses will be elevated in relation to the street; this is to keep passengers from getting on and off the bus in places that aren't the dedicated stations.

Each bus will also have screens with general information about the SITT, free Wi-Fi, air conditioning, security cameras and will also be accessible to people with disabilities, it'll even have the option to mount bicycles.

The buses will use natural gas, which is much cheaper than diesel or gasoline, which is what the current city's public transportation is using, which in turn reduces expenses for the transit companies that'll get involved in the project, even by charging less per passenger.

Much of the route won't operate on the Vía Rápida highway, instead it'll travel through Tijuana's Downtown streets and even Paseo de los Heroes.

How much will it cost? Around 13 to 14 pesos for the initial ticket for route 1, which will probably give you around an hour to get onboard the system, the director López Sepúlveda also noted that the peso's devaluation has affected the calculations of the system's pricing for tickets, due to the fact that many of the materials used for the construction and operation are purchased in dollars. However, they hope that this will be the final price range.

At first, the use of cash to buy a one-hour trip on the system will be possible, but they aim to implement the use of rechargeable electronic cards only, this is to prevent passengers from carrying cash. This will only apply for Route 1, but they will also be working together with the transit companies so that the feeder routes accept cards too.

Route 1 (red) with the feeder ones in the near future (green and yellow)

Finished construction sites

The Juan Ojeda Robles bridge was one of the first finished sites for the SITT

Overall, a 25-30% progress has been made in the construction of the new transit system, including:

The Juan Ojeda Robles bridge in the Buena Vista neighborhood, a 50.2 million pesos investment. The rehabilitation of the Simón Bolívar Boulevard

What are they working on right now?

The fiber optic installation on Route 1, as well as the rehabilitation of 9th and 10th streets, pothole repairs where the buses will travel and improvement of traffic lights and sign posts along the route

Different color pavement markers will tell which lanes are preferably for buses and which are bus-only lanes.

What's pending?

One of the stations and a pedestrian bridge that will take users from one highway to another

The construction of the stations Pedestrian bridges that connect the stations where needed Refurbishing and maintenance to existing bridges A bridge at Puerta México that connects the system from Downtown Tijuana to the San Ysidro border crossing

The Lázaro Cárdenas station, next to Home Depot in La Mesa.

When will it be ready?

One of the Route 1 terminals to be built

The million dollar question. Or 1.05 billion pesos to be exact, which is the project's total investment amount. The city's mayor estimated that the first bus could become operational by September 2016, but we may start seeing some test buses as part of a getting-to-know-the-system campaign for the locals.

A future station in the 20 de noviembre neighborhood (Las Américas bridge, right next to the city's DIF and the car registration renewal center)

They expect 250,000 people to use the system on a daily basis initially and expect for it to be; for the most part, self-sustaining, without the need for a subsidy to achieve its operation or to make it accessible to its users.

Furthermore, the city's mayor and secretary of urban planning reported the existence of 28 traffic congestion hubs in Tijuana that need a solution, aside from a modern transportation system. They won't be able to solve everything during his administration, said the mayor, but:

There will be no left turns on the Díaz Ordaz and Benitez boulevard towards the Lazaro Cardenas boulevard, this way, they'll be able to remove the traffic lights from the latter and try and eliminate the traffic congestion in the 5 y 10 area. They will continue to modernize traffic lights in order to make them more effective in several parts of the city.

A station in front of Plaza Río

The city's government asked the media to help in getting across all of the project's details from this point forward, as it represents one of the most important changes in the history of Tijuana in regards to urban mobility.

They will showcase videos, images, tours and more of what seems to be (with or without success) the largest project of Astiazarán's administration.

The project also has its own website now, which includes videos, information on public bids and progress made so far.

More news at SanDiegoRed.com

Follow San Diego Red on Facebook and Twitter.

@Joedesancho

jose.sanchez@sandiegored.com

Translated by: edgar.martinez@sandiegored.com