Metro Pantitlán

Metro Pantitlán is the terminal station for four Metro lines in the east of the city. As such, it’s one of the biggest transport hubs anywhere in the world. It’s also easily the busiest station in the Metro system, with just shy of 400,000 passengers passing through on most days.

The station is on the border between the alcaldías of Venustiano Carranza and Iztacalco. It’s Nahuatl name means “between the flags.” During ancient times, a culvert here meant that canoes needed to be walked from one side to the other, between the bodies of water. The flags operated as warning markers for those traveling the ancient waterway.

• The station first opened for service along line 5 in 1981
• Metro line 1 began service to Pantitlán in 1984
• Metro line 9 opened in 1987.
• Metro line A began operating in 1991.

Over those ten years, nearly all of the architectural work was completed by Aurelio Nuño Morales and Isaac Broid Zajman, both from Ibero University. They also designed the stations on Metro Line A and Nuño Morales went on to design many of those on Metro Line B.

The painter José Luis Elías Jáuregui completed the painting “Alegoría a la Ciudad de México y el Sistema de Transporte Colectivo.” The painting is dedicated to the workers on the Metro system, and refers specifically to the founding of the Metro in 1969. With an area of nine square meters, it’s hard to miss at the entrance to the Metro line 5 platforms.

The Metro Pantitlán station is enormous. It’s a 700 meter walk to Terminal Two of the Mexico City Airport. Within the station’s many walkways, corridors, stairs and ramps, one can find a chapel, exhibitions spaces, and commercial spaces. Outside, the acres of bus-stops serve about 100 bus lines running to points further east.