The fleet of 90 Alexander Dennis Enviro500MMC buses dominate major part of Mexico City plying Line 7, a BRT opened last year linking the hospital district of Indios Verdes in the north with the Auditorio Nacional and Zoo at Campo Marte in the south, a journey time of just under half an hour. This picture is on the northern section where a bus only corridor has been created with station style stops. Police or CDMX officials control the boarding at some stops. As can be seen the service is intensive and anywhere along the route it is rare for there not to be at leaast one red doubledecker in sight. Despite their huge capacity buses are often full even at what might thought to be a quiet time of the day. Some major stops have turnstyle entry to the bus shelter to speed boarding as no driver interaction is needed. That said all transactions are via a bespoke transit card and machines appear to be available at all stops to top up cards if needs be. There are traffic lights along the route but there appears to be no bus priority. On the northern section the lights display "MB" shaped illuminated symbols rather than red, green or yellow circles. When not halted the buses take no prisoners hurtling along the route with much use of the horn, especially at pedestrian crossings or at cars that block the bus lanes if they have failed to clear a junction. The southern section of the route is along the very wide Paseo de la Reforma and here bus lanes have been created kerbside in both directions, but raised paving deters incursion from parallel traffic. The photo is taken from a south bound Enviro following bus 935. No less than three Enviros are seen heading north with 811 leading 937 and 934. The large numbers which look like running numbers on cards in the windscreen match the numbers fixed on the buses on the sides and rear. Those numbered in the 800s are prefixed L7 on the sides, whilst the 900s have SBR prefices. The meaning of the latter is unknown, though clearly the L7 refers to Line 7 and solely L7 is displayed in the rear destination aperture. The buses are clearly very popular with the local population, one elderly couple joining me on the northward journey made a point of getting selfies with the at the end of the trip!
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