Metrobus Line 1 Electrification & Concession, Mexico City (FIIAPP)
Cities Forum was engaged, through Spain's international cooperation foundation FIIAPP, to support the electrification and concession renewal of Mexico City's Metrobús bus rapid-transit system, with a focus on its foundational Line 1.
Year: 2025–2026 | Client: FIIAPP — Metrobús / SEMOVI, Mexico City | Country: Mexico (Mexico City / CDMX)
Cities Forum was engaged, through Spain's international cooperation foundation FIIAPP, to support the electrification and concession renewal of Mexico City's Metrobús bus rapid-transit system, with a focus on its foundational Line 1. Electrifying a large, concession-based BRT is as much a legal and institutional challenge as a technical one; the assignment set out to identify the regulatory and governance changes needed to move Line 1 to a zero-emission fleet and to inform a new concession framework.
Our approach
The study was structured to move from context to actionable recommendation. It established the legal and regulatory framework, the CDMX Mobility Law and the concession-title requirements, before diagnosing the current concession (its rights, obligations, exclusivity and tariff scheme) and evaluating Line 1's operation in detail: capacity, frequency, occupancy, fleet and the eleven depots that serve the corridor, where different fleet-ownership and operation models were being trialled. A dedicated institutional and governance diagnosis mapped the roles of the mobility secretariat, the Metrobús agency and the concessionaires. Throughout, Cities Forum benchmarked against validated international experience, including Medellín and San José (Costa Rica), so that recommendations added genuinely new insight rather than restating what the operator already knew.
What we delivered
Methodologically, the work combined this analysis with stakeholder interviews (drawing on both CDMX operators and international experts) and AI-assisted analysis, applying an approach the firm had refined on earlier assignments, and was supported by a field mission to Mexico City in December 2025. The central aim was to define the regulatory adjustments required for electrification and to feed directly into a new concession document for the line.
Impact
The engagement gives Mexico City's authorities an evidence-based path to electrify one of the world's pioneering BRT corridors while modernising its concession model, reconciling decarbonisation with the commercial and institutional realities of a concession-based system. It also extends Cities Forum's international portfolio into the complex terrain of public-transport regulation and fleet transition in a major Latin-American megacity.
