Trolley Cars

One of the lesser known and more obscure museums in Mexico City is the trolley car museum, properly known as the "Museum of Electric Transport of Mexico City".

I took a Metrobus and the Metro and then walked about twenty minutes to reach it.  It's a very small, outdoor museum with less than a dozen trolley cars and other forms of public transport on display.  Unfortunately, not all of the vehicles are identified.

This one appeared to be the oldest of the trolley cars.  (In Mexico City the vehicle is referred to as a "trolebús".)

The first "trolebús" route was inaugurated in 1951, so I would estimate that this vehicle, which used to travel to the southern borough of Xochimilco, is from that decade.

You are allowed to board most of the vehicles.

The origin and history of this trolley car was given on a plaque.

It was constructed by the Brill Company in 1937 and was used in Little Rock, Arkansas.  In 1956 it was purchased by the city of Shreveport, Louisiana, and in 1966 it was bought by the Mexico City transit system.  It operated until 1972.

The interior of the trolley

I love the light fixtures.

It was fun reading the signs.  "To avoid double payment, always demand your ticket from the operator."  The fare was 35 Mexican cents.  Thinking back to the value of the peso back when I made my first trip to Mexico in 1973, that was probably the equivalent of about 3 U.S. cents.

"It is prohibited to distract the operator."

"Children who know how to walk pay the fare."

"It is prohibited to transport unmanageable packages as well as dirty objects which cause inconvenience to the public."

This trolley dates from 1947 and was bought from the city of Milwaukee in 1967.  It was reconstructed by the Moyada Company of Mexico and was in use until 2000.

Look at the seating in this vehicle.  You could have a picnic on the trolley!

This trolley is obviously of recent vintage.  Inside there are still remnants of signs dealing with COVID precautions.

There are also a couple of other examples of electric transport.

Here is one of the electric trains that travel the light rail line that runs south to Xochimilco.

And here is one of the cabins from the new aerial "cablebus" routes.

Next door to the museum is the parking lot and maintenance yard for today's "trolebuses".  As you can see, the newest vehicles in the fleet are articulated double trolleys similar to the Metrobus.

I noticed that there were "trolebuses" passing right by the museum and that their destination was "Metro Mixcoac".  That's a station on the subway line that passes closest to my apartment, so I decided to take the trolley home.

The fare is 4 pesos (about 21 U.S. cents) and is cheaper than the subway (5 pesos) or the Metrobus (6 pesos).  Since the museum is the beginning of the line, I had a seat.  But the trolley became more and more crowded as it continued along its route.  It is also quite slow with many stops.  Rather than taking it all the way to Mixcoac, I got off at Insurgentes Avenue where I transferred to the Metrobus that passes even closer to the apartment.

The trolley museum is certainly not a major museum, but my little excursion was fun.