Thursday, March 28, 2024

More than half of all buses in Mexico are operating illegally

Mexico has a lot of old and illegal buses on the road.

According to federal statistics, 53% of all buses — 56,631 in total — are illegal because they are more than 15 years old, and 748 of those buses are more than 50 years old, the majority of which are used to transport tourists.

Older buses are a major source of air pollution.

Experts say that the Ministry of Communications and Transportation is aware of the violations, but refuses to take action to force bus operators to comply with the law.

“The ministry knows what vehicles it has, what license plates and how old each one is, but it has not had the strength to say ‘we will no longer give this vehicle license plates,’” said Salvador Saavedra, director of the consulting firm Tecnología para el Transporte.

The number of illegal buses operating on the nation’s roads is up from 33.8% in 2016.

Of the legally obsolete buses, 30,000 are used for passenger transportation with fixed schedules and established terminals, and 26,618 are used for tourism.

Mexico City recently took delivery of the first of 10 fully electric buses which it acquired at a cost of about US $750,000 each. The city said the new buses reduce energy use by 80% and in 10 years of operation will prevent the emission of 1,300 tonnes of carbon and 14 tonnes of harmful pollutants.

Source: Reforma (sp)

President López Obrador at a press conference with a model Mexicana airplane

Mexicana airline faces US $840M lawsuit from Texas company

0
The state-owned airline, which launched operations in December, is being sued for breach of contract in a U.S. federal court in New York.
The container ship the Dali crashing into the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore

AMLO confirms 1 Mexican rescued, 2 missing after Baltimore bridge collapse

0
Mexico's President López Obrador confirmed Wednesday morning that the Mexican nationals were working on the bridge when it collapsed Tuesday.
Firefighters in Veracruz

1,000 firefighters combat blazes in Veracruz as wildfires spike nationwide

0
The wildfires in the mountainous central region of the state started on Saturday and have yet to be fully controlled.