Guatemala could have the first line of the metro project in 2027, provided that the schedule set by the central government and the Municipality of Guatemala is met. The next milestone is to secure funding for two technical studies to be carried out starting in September and to decide which entity will carry them out, as well as the procurement of technology, rolling stock, and signaling equipment.

Also known as the White Line (which runs from the Central de Mayoreo in Villa Nueva to the Fegua Central Station in Plaza Barrios in Zone 1), it is part of an ambitious set of works called the Metro System, planned to be completed in 38 months, which has already begun. The next step, according to the 2024-2027 metro project schedule, is to lay the initial groundwork for two of the eight studies required by the project.

Giovanni Aragón, director of Urban Mobility for the Municipality of Guatemala, emphasizes that it is necessary to have the budget for the execution of some studies “that will determine in detail the demand for metro users, as well as the rolling stock and technology that we are going to use.”

The studies planned to begin this year are market, social, and clearing the streets (Right-of-Way) studies. The first study will analyze service specifications, the volume of users who will use the service, and the price they would be willing to pay for it. The social and clearing the streets study will determine the advisability of carrying out the project by measuring its impact on society. For these studies, Aragón estimates that the government must allocate the funds by August of this year at the latest in order to meet the schedule.

At the administrative and financial level, the first step forward was taken when the Ministry of Public Finance presented to Congress a proposal to adjust the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget for the current fiscal year. One of the points in the statement issued by the institution confirms that Q250 million would be allocated to “pre-investment studies related to the blue and white metro line project; hospital, educational, and cultural infrastructure, among others.”

The next step is to decide which institution will make the project a reality, allocating the funds to have the first tests between May and June 2027. Aragón emphasizes that once the money is available, it will be necessary to decide who will be the implementing unit to begin the studies, as well as the procurement of rolling stock and signaling equipment. “There is a possibility that either the central government will execute the corresponding budget or the municipality will do so through the relevant unit,” he considers.

Last week, during the presentation of the Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure, and Housing's Work Plan for 2024-2028, the minister of that portfolio, Félix Alvarado, was emphatic in saying that the project "must be done. From the point of view of the team we are working with and from a practical standpoint, (where) the relationship materializes in discussions with the municipality, we have to do it right," said the minister.

The President of the Republic, Bernardo Arévalo, referred in one of his social media accounts to the progress made in the construction of overpasses that are part of the Metro System project, a project that “runs from north to south, enters via the Belize Bridge and reaches the Cenma in Petapa using the train track,” he explains. He also pointed out that the municipality is working on this project. “We have partnered up and together we are building the overpasses and bridges needed for this line to be operational,” he said, referring to the entire transportation system of which the metro is a part.

In addition to the overpasses that are part of the project and have already begun, there are still a number of financial, legal, and technical issues that need to be resolved in order for the Metro System to be up and running by 2027.

Right of Way Acquisition

The Metro System is planned in two phases. Aragón estimates the first phase, which spans 11 kilometers, will cost US$580 million. The second phase runs from Zone 1 to Centra Norte in Zone 17.

Regarding the first few kilometers of the project, Aragón believes the only legal challenge would be related to the right-of-way, which “fortunately has the space available and is a relatively easy challenge to overcome with proper planning.”

The second part is where Rafael Valladares, a researcher at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies (Ceur), identifies a challenge regarding the right-of-way from Zone 4 to Zone 18, where he believes that the issues of the inhabitants who, due to various economic situations, have had to invade the places near the railway tracks have not been resolved, and solutions for relocating them have not been considered,” he adds.

Valladares points out that the proposed route for this transport system should extend to Zone 18 in order to have a greater impact on the population. “When we conducted the Metro Rail study at CEUR, we criticized the fact that it only reached Centra Norte and that it needed to be extended to places like Palencia to be more useful and to connect with Zone 18, which is one of the most populated areas.”

Type of train

Having the Metro System operational by 2027 presents other technical challenges, according to Valladares, one of which is related to the construction of a bridge that could delay the project's completion. "The proposed section of the Atanasio Tzul highway includes a bridge towards Cenma; that's the situation. This bridge is noteworthy because it will further delay the project," the researcher explains.

Regarding passenger mobility, Valladares points out, “It’s striking that intersections aren’t being created to connect other areas. There will be stations, but how will people get from those stations to other places?”

The Municipality of Guatemala City preliminarily estimates that the Metro System will have 20 trains; however, pending studies will determine “what type of technology and train cars we need, and based on this technology, we’ll find a way to acquire the rolling stock,” Aragón explains.

Due all the technical aspects, the most important, according to Aragón, is the type of propulsion the train will have. “In this case, if the train is powered by electricity, then the corresponding studies will have to be carried out and a supply of that type of current will have to be obtained for the train's movement,” Aragón explains. This, he believes, is one of the technical challenges that must be kept in mind to meet the established deadlines.

In the case of Guatemala, according to Eddy Morataya, general manager of the Municipal Transportation Company, a train system that is compatible with the city's urban layout and incorporates green spaces must be designed. "What we will see is a light rail system, possibly electric, with wagons that can carry up to 300 people per wagon," he estimates.

The municipality has proposed connecting the metro to bus stations. Morataya emphasizes the importance of building parking facilities and connecting the Metro system with "other systems, such as bicycles, because this combination, known as multimodality in urban projects, ensures that the car is not the only option for reaching a destination."

Commuting from South to North, is a torture

Every morning, Diego Marín, a resident of Zone 5, Villa Nueva, leaves his house at 5:30 a.m. for his job in Zone 4 of Guatemala City. A Prensa Libre team accompanied Marín on a workday, making the journey from Ciudad Real Street to the factory named Tipic to reach Atanasio Tzul Avenue in Zone 12. “It usually takes me an hour and a half, but now with the rains (in June), it has taken me up to two hours because of the poor condition of the roads and the constant increase in traffic,” he estimates.

In the afternoon, it's the same story.

In the afternoon, the story is similar. It takes Diego up to three hours to get home. "If I leave at 5:00 p.m., I get home around 8:30 p.m. I wait so I don't have to spend those three hours in traffic and waste gas. It's exhausting being stuck in traffic."

Precisely on the route that Diego travels, there are plans to build the white line of the Metro System, which could impact all those passengers who travel from south to north and vice versa. Diego, who has been getting up early since he was a child to travel around the city, believes that Guatemala "needs effective and fast public transportation that has the capacity to transport thousands of people to various parts of the city in order to solve the traffic problem, which has been an issue for years."

The Metro System's white line will have 12 stops along an 11-kilometer route which, according to preliminary information from the Municipality of Guatemala, could have a capacity of 130,000 passengers per day and will travel at a speed of 30 km/h. This means that for Guatemalans traveling from Villa Nueva, on Calzada Atanasio Tzul, to Zone 1 of Guatemala City, it could take up to a third of the time it currently takes in their vehicle.