Old vs. New on Tijuana’s Bus Routes

June 13, 2017 | Pulitzer Center

Patrick Reilly

A footbridge offers an overview of Tijuana’s public transit options: garishly painted ex-school buses, collective taxi vans, and individual taxis all jockeying for space. Image by Patrick Reilly. Mexico, 2017.

Many bus companies are known by their colors. Drivers with this one, Azul y Blanco (Blue and White), give each passenger a receipt upon boarding. Receipts are supposed to double as an insurance policy in the event of an accident. Image by Patrick Reilly. Mexico, 2017

An Azul y Blanco bus speeds towards Tijuana’s beaches. Most of what’s visible through the windows is California’s Border Field State Park. A sliver of the border fence can be seen just above the row of seats. Image by Patrick Reilly. Mexico, 2017.

Smaller than both buses and minibuses, “taxis de ruta”—collective taxis—are meant to carry about 12 passengers. This one, driven by José Luís Cisneros Davila, is a re-purposed ambulance. In this photo, the driver pulls over to let another taxi edge past. Image by Patrick Reilly. Mexico, 2017.

At Flores Magon, the taxi de ruta firm where Cisneros works, a “checeador,” or “checker,” signs vehicles out several minutes apart from each other. Image by Patrick Reilly. Mexico, 2017

At the Sistema Integral de Transporte de Tijuana’s (SITT’s) storage facility, sleek red buses are readied for operation along the city’s main thoroughfare. The SITT’s planners hope that bus rapid transit (BRT) service will vastly improve Tijuana’s commuting experience. Image by Patrick Reilly. Mexico, 2017.

At the SITT’s futuristic southern terminal, passengers can transfer from the trunk route’s red buses to these light green vehicles, which follow feeder routes to other parts of the city. Image by Patrick Reilly. Mexico, 2017.

An Azul y Blanco bus illegally cuts into a SITT station’s reserved lane, seconds after a car did the same. Since this new bus rapid transit route debuted in November 2016, it’s been troubled by a lack of public awareness and hostility from some other bus companies. Image by Patrick Reilly. Mexico, 2017.

Along the route, several SITT stations have been heavily vandalized, and robbed of the equipment—turnstiles, traffic signals, fiber-optic cable—that the system needs to reach its full potential. Image by Patrick Reilly. Mexico, 2017.

Despite these problems—and lower-than-expected ridership—locals are beginning to find the SITT useful in reaching key destinations around the city, such as the San Ysidro Port of Entry border crossing. Image by Patrick Reilly. Mexico, 2017.

Since 1960, Tijuana’s population has risen from 150,000 to over 1 million. During this growth spurt, the city jury-rigged a public transportation system, contracting bus and collective taxi routes to different firms. For years, thousands of Tijuana commuters relied on these companies on a daily basis.

Their secondhand American school buses make for a hot, bumpy, noisy ride, and their tangled routes can require multiple transfers. Drivers, meanwhile, have to work long hours and must often pay vehicle rent and maintenance costs out of their earnings.

To make things better, the city and some transportistas are investing millions in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which involves high-speed buses running along reserved lanes, only stopping at tram-like stations. Tijuana’s new “ruta troncal,” or “trunk route,” looks and feels like a vast improvement over the older lines. But it’s drawing opposition and skepticism from transportistas who aren’t involved, and many locals are reluctant to climb aboard. These photos show the contrast between the old and new transit systems—and the challenges of upgrading to the latter.