Would you pay $10 to cross the border faster?
The city of Tijuana announced a new round trip transportation service between Avenida Revolución and San Ysidro (California). It is estimated that, initially, this transportation option will benefit more than 30,000 people per month.
The objective of the so-called binational route —which starts from the center station of the Tijuana Integral Transportation System (SITT)— is to facilitate the movement of people and reduce the number of vehicles that cross the border daily, authorities said.
“This will bring prosperity to Tijuana and above all, it will help make the commute easier for all of our citizens who come and go every day,” said Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero.
The project stems from a collaboration between the municipal government, the state government, and the trucking company Mexicoach.
Trucks with capacity for thirty people leave every half hour. The service hours are from 5 in the morning to 9 at night, seven days a week. The ticket costs $10 round trip and can be purchased online in the Mexicoach portal or in the SITT module located in Puerta México.
The approximate travel time is half an hour, including the border crossing, said Alejandro Mungaray, director of the SITT. Once the ticket is purchased and the travel documents are verified, a manifest is prepared that is previously sent to US authorities for approval.
As part of this project, rehabilitation work was carried out at the station located on Avenida Revolución. Among them, improvements to the electrical and internet system, in addition to the presence of bilingual police.
Border residents took advantage of this service in its early days. Marilú Sánchez, a Tijuana resident, said she first heard about this service in a TikTok video.
“You save the walk,” he said. “There are people who can’t walk (so much) and don’t have a car, and here they have an option.”
Mungaray said that, with the implementation of the binational route, it is also sought that passengers coming from the United States can connect with the different stops offered by the SITT if they so require.
One of the proposals being evaluated is to include a program for students and workers who cross the border daily, Mungaray added.
“We are focused on promoting options so that these systems really capture a greater number of users and that this is reflected in a significant volume of vehicles that are reduced,” he said.
In Baja California, proposals have been presented to expedite the crossing of people from Mexico to San Diego County. Among them, the project of a ferry that travels from Ensenada to San Diegoor the proposal of a queue at the crosswalk for the exclusive use of trolley passengers.
Now the Tijuana government presents one more proposal. “The question is, what are we doing to be able to promote other types of alternatives that are not oriented towards the concentration of vehicles?” questioned Mungaray.
“What we have to take advantage of is that (San Diego) already has a very efficient transportation system, so how do we manage to connect with that system? There are various options, we are proposing this right now”.
He HIS, which is the transportation agency of the municipality of Tijuana, was inaugurated in 2016 by the then mayor Jorge Astiazarán. The current administration has said that it seeks to strengthen this system.
In Tijuana it is estimated that about 600,000 people use public transportation every day.
With information of the independent journalist Yolanda Morales.
