Potrero metro station is a station of the Mexico City Metro along Avenida de los Insurgentes, in Gustavo A. Madero, Mexico City. It is an at-grade station with one island platform serving Line 3 (the Olive Line) between Deportivo 18 de Marzo and La Raza metro stations. Potrero metro station was inaugurated on 1 December 1979, providing northward service toward Indios Verdes and southward service toward Hospital General. The station services the colonias (neighborhoods) of Capultitlan and Guadalupe Insurgentes. The station and its surrounding area are named this way because there used to be a hippodrome and Potrero's pictogram features the silhouette of a horse head behind a fence to reference a paddock. In 2019, Potrero station had an average daily ridership of 17,308 passengers, ranking it the 106th busiest station in the network and the third least used on the line. The facilities are partially accessible to people with disabilities as it is equipped with wheelchair ramps.

Location and layout

Potrero is an at-grade metro station situated along Avenida de los Insurgentes, in Gustavo A. Madero, Mexico City. The station serves the colonias (neighborhoods) of Capultitlan and Guadalupe Insurgentes. The station's pictogram is a silhouette of a horse's head behind a fence. It and the surrounding area are named this way because there used to be a hippodrome during the Porfiriato era (1876–1911), in Colonia Ex Hipódromo de Peralvillo in the modern era; its paddocks were located in the northern part of the zone. The northeastern exit is located at Avenida Victoria, while the southeastern exit goes onto Calle Excélsior, both in Colonia Guadalupe Insurgentes. The northwestern exits connect to Calles Poniente 112 and Poniente 116, both in Colonia Capultitlan. The station offers a partially accessible service with wheelchair ramps. Within the system, the station lies between Deportivo 18 de Marzo and La Raza. The area is serviced by a Centro de transferencia modal (CETRAM), which acts as a transport hub connecting various modes of transport, covering an area of 6,614 m2. Commuters can access different routes and transport methods from there, including Routes 25 and 104 of the Red de Transporte de Pasajeros (RTP) system as well as Route 15-C of the public bus system. Additionally, Line 1 of the Metrobús service is available at the Potrero bus station.

History and construction

Line 3 of the Mexico City Metro was built by Ingeniería de Sistemas de Transportes Metropolitano, Electrometro, and Cometro, the latter being a subsidiary of Empresas ICA; Potrero metro station opened on 1 December 1979, running northward service toward Indios Verdes and southward service toward Hospital General. The Potrero–La Raza segment runs from street level to the underground, measuring 1106 m in length. The section from Deportivo 18 de Marzo to Potrero, heading north, is 966 m long. During construction, remains of horses, mammoths, fish, and birds were uncovered.

Incidents

On 14 December 2018, a private vehicle crashed into the walls at the Insurgentes Norte and Victoria entrance after being struck by a public bus with no injuries reported. On 19 July 2021, a man was stabbed and killed in the corridors of the CETRAM during an apparent robbery. Two trains collided inside the Potrero–La Raza interstation tunnel while both headed toward Indios Verdes metro station on 7 January 2023. One person was killed and 106 others were injured. Twenty days later, the Attorney General's Office of Mexico City attributed the accident to two reasons: reported cable theft the day before and negligent driving by the operator for failing to deactivate the autopilot and not driving in manual mode in the theft zone, as indicated by the procedure manual. Subsequently, the Mexico City government deployed members of the National Guard to monitor the metro stations, stating that the system was under sabotage attack. After the accident, a metro driver published a video about how the tunnels look due to the lack of lighting in multiple areas. According to the company IUYET, contracted by the metro system to inspect Line 3, the Potrero metro station building "has a high level of vulnerability due to collapses in the slabs, fractures, and subsidence". The group reported that there are areas where the tracks are not supported by the slab due to subsidence, with separations of up to 60 cm and sinkings that increase between 6.87 cm to 8.83 cm each year in the tunnel toward La Raza. In comparison, the section from Potrero to Deportivo 18 de Marzo sinks between 1.93 cm and 8.79 cm annually. The metro union added that there is "a deformation in the slab and the track elements, including rails, guide bars, and insulators, and sinkholes [...] which create problems in train operations and the execution of corrective maintenance work. In addition, they identified deformations in the track section between Potrero and Deportivo 18 de Marzo, which causes swaying during train operations.

Ridership

According to the data provided by the authorities, before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public transport, commuters averaged per year between 17,200 and 20,300 daily entrances between 2014 and 2019; the station had a ridership of 6,317,545 passengers in 2019, which was an increase of 48,482 passengers compared to 2018. In 2019 specifically, Potrero metro station ranked as the 106th busiest station out of the system's 195 stations and was the third least used on the line.