A power failure on a cable car line in the east side of Mexico City left passengers stranded in mid-air for almost an hour on Sunday evening.
Line 2 of the Cablebús in Iztapalapa, the most populous municipality in the country, was suspended for 40-50 minutes from around 7:00 p.m. The transit service reported on Twitter shortly after 8:00 p.m. that passengers were being helped to descend from cabins. Service resumed at around 9:00 p.m.
It was the second electricity failure on Line 2 this month, after power was lost due to the 7.2-magnitude earthquake on September 7. The line went into operation on August 8.
“The company that manages the line is carrying out the necessary inspections to determine the reason for the delay,” Cablebús reported.
Line 2 was constructed and is operated by the Italian company Leitner. The company serviced a cable car line in northern Italy between 2014 and 2016 which collapsed in May, leaving 14 people dead. It has offices in Italy, Austria, France, Slovakia and the United States.
Passengers took to Twitter to criticize the faulty service. “… In a hurry you come enthusiastically to try the ‘fast and efficient’ option of the @MICablebusCDMX line 2 and you get trapped for more than 40 minutes in mid-air … due to ‘system failures,'” wrote one user.
Another described the “desperation” felt by her family while trapped in the cable car.
Line 2 has improved connectivity in working class Iztapalapa through seven stops linking Metro stations Constitución de 1917 and Santa Marta by a 36-minute journey end-to-end. The 10.8-kilometer line has 305 cabins, and cuts the journey by almost 50 minutes. It cost 3.18 billion pesos (almost US $159 million) to build.
The Cablebús system began operating on June 11 through Line 1, connecting the Gustavo A. Madero borough to the Indios Verdes Metro and bus station. The first cable car to open in the Valley of México was the Mexicable in Ecatepec in October 2016. A new 8.2-kilometer line is under construction in the same municipality, and there have been discussions about a new service in the west side of Mexico City in Naucalpan, and another in the southwest of the city to connect the neighborhoods of Magdalena Contreras and Tlalpan.
