To the End of the Line

I have written a number of times here about Line 2 of the Mexico City Metro and the renovations which occurred in many of the stations prior to the World Cup this summer.  I often take the line to go to the Centro Histórico.  I catch the Metrobus which runs near the apartment, take it north along Insurgentes Avenue, and get off at the Revolución stop.  From there I can transfer to Line 2 of the subway and in just four stops I am at the Zócalo, the city's main plaza.  I recently took it all the way to its southern end of the line at the Tasqueña station in order to go to the Dolores Olmedo Museum.  However, I have never gone in the other direction to its northwestern terminus.  Last week, just for the heck of it, I decided to do so.

As I have done so many times before, after getting off the Metrobus, I walked a short distance to the Revolución subway station.

Once inside the station, instead of taking the train toward the Centro Histórico or beyond, I went west in the direction of Cuatro Caminos (Four Roads) terminus.

I would be going eight stops to reach Cuatro Caminos.

I had only taken the subway once in this direction, and I had never gone to the end of the line.  The train was quite crowded, but I was lucky and got a seat.  Vendors selling candy bars and packages of permanent markers navigated their way through the passengers who were standing.  Everything seemed to cost ten pesos.  As we traveled northwest, the stations were all rather dreary.  Obviously the costly renovations had been done purely to impress the influx of visitors arriving for the World Cup.  There is nothing of tourist interest in this direction, so why bother to spruce up the stations when only the local residents use them.

I arrived at the end of the line, a very large station.

Cuatro Caminos is actually located outside the limits of Mexico City in the State of Mexico.  (The fact that there is the nation of Mexico, the City of Mexico, and also a state named Mexico is confusing to foreign visitors.  The State of Mexico surrounds the capital city on three sides.)  Cuatro Caminos is located in the municipality of Naucalpan, a suburb with a population of over 800,000.

Although Line 2 of the Metro, inaugurated in 1970, is the second oldest in the city, the extension out to Cuatro Caminos was not built until 1984.

Adjacent to the station is a shopping mall.  It is not a particularly upscale shopping center, but it does have a branch of Sears.

Above Sears there is a food court with Subway, McDonald's, KFC and Domino's.

Outside the terminal / shopping mall there is a transport hub where passengers can take buses and vans to various cities in the State of Mexico.

With my curiosity satisfied, I got back on the Metro (since it was the start of the line, I was able to get a seat) and headed back to Revolución from where I was able to take the Metrobus home.