Movilidad Integrada: One Fare Card Across Eight Transport Systems
Mexico City replaced its mode-specific cards with one contactless card in October 2019, and in March 2024 it retired the magnetic paper ticket the Metro had sold since 1969 — entry is now by MI card or by an ordinary contactless bank card, accepted at every station since October 2024. The same card opens the Metro, Metrobús, Tren Ligero, Trolebús, RTP buses, Cablebús, Ecobici and the Toluca interurban train. Fares stay separate and unusually low: the Metro charges 5 pesos, unchanged since December 2013, and the only cross-operator discount found is a free Metro-to-RTP transfer within two hours. There is no daily or weekly cap and no pass, and stored value expires 300 days after the last use.
Live
📅 since 2019
✔ Editor-reviewed
📊 Impact
Metro recorded more than 1.241 billion trips in 2025, its highest on record; the city publishes daily ridership by line and station as open data back to January 2010.
🎓 Lesson
Taking cash out of the gate is far easier than integrating the fare. Mexico City put its whole network on one card and then on bank cards, but riders still pay each operator separately, with no cap, no pass, and a balance that quietly expires after 300 days.
Evidence🏛️ Official
Scale🏙️ City-wide
FundingMexico City government budget; bank-card acceptance acquired through Getnet by Santander
Sources
↗ Expansión Política — launch of the unified card (22 Oct 2019)States the Tarjeta de Movilidad Integrada was presented on 16 October 2019 by Head of Government Claudia Sheinbaum, went on sale 21 October at 5 pesos with an official price of 15 pesos from 1 January 2020, uses the international Calypso standard and a Lance Wyman design, and that two old Tarjeta CDMX could be exchanged for one new card until 31 December 2019, after which the old cards were phased out. Basis for yearStart 2019.
↗ Excélsior — end of the Metro paper ticket (2024)Head of Government Martí Batres, quoted: 'el boleto del Metro se acabó, este es el último' ('the Metro ticket is finished, this is the last one'). Reports that the magnetic paper ticket, in circulation since 1969, stayed valid only through February on Lines 2 and 3 and that from 1 March 2024 entry requires the Tarjeta de Movilidad Integrada; the changeover involved 1,500 new turnstiles, 870 validators, 206 courtesy gates and 72 vending machines. Corrects the widely repeated '1 March 2025' date.
↗ Visa Mexico — contactless payments reach the Metro (30 Sep 2024)Press release from a scheme partner: coverage of '195 estaciones de las 12 líneas del Metro capitalino' ('195 stations of the 12 lines of the capital's Metro'), accepting 'tarjetas de crédito, débito o servicios, así como billeteras electrónicas y dispositivos inteligentes' ('credit, debit or service cards, as well as electronic wallets and smart devices'), delivered with Getnet by Santander, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and the city government.
↗ STC Metro — contactless bank cards enabled on Line 12 (16 Oct 2024)Operator note completing the rollout: 'Con la inclusión de la Línea 12, ya es posible ingresar al cien por ciento de la red con esta forma de pago' ('With the inclusion of Line 12, it is now possible to enter one hundred per cent of the network with this form of payment'). Direct fetch returned HTTP 503 through our proxy; the page and sentence were confirmed via search and matching same-day reports in El Universal and Infobae (16 October 2024).
↗ Infobae — how to enter the Metro with a bank card (26 Oct 2025)Current-state check: open-loop payment is 'disponible en la totalidad de las estaciones de la red, sin restricciones de línea o ubicación' ('available at all stations of the network, with no restriction of line or location'), 'cobrando la tarifa estándar de 5 pesos por viaje' ('charging the standard fare of 5 pesos per trip'). Supports the claim that a rider can tap an ordinary bank card, phone or watch at a Metro turnstile.
↗ Expansión Política — how long the fares have been frozen (29 Oct 2025)'El último costo del boleto aumentó fue el 13 de diciembre de 2013, cuando pasó de 3 a 5 pesos' ('The last time the ticket price rose was 13 December 2013, when it went from 3 to 5 pesos'). Same article on the bus rapid transit fare: 'La última vez que el servicio aumentó de precio fue en abril de 2013, cuando pasó de 5 a 6 pesos' ('The last time the service rose in price was April 2013, when it went from 5 to 6 pesos'), Metrobús Line 4 to the airport excepted at 30 pesos.
↗ Excélsior — free Metro-to-RTP transfer with the MI cardThen mobility secretary Andrés Lajous states the transfer between STC Metro and RTP buses is free when paid with the MI card. Press descriptions of the rule are consistent: valid within two hours of the first trip and limited to one transfer per card; Metrobús line-to-line transfers are separately free within two hours. Direct fetch was not obtainable; claim rests on the headline sentence plus consistent reporting in Reporte Indigo and Sopitas, so the entry states it as the only cross-operator discount found rather than as an exhaustive fare rule.
↗ CDMX open data portal — daily Metro ridership by line and stationOfficial dataset: daily ridership in the STC Metro broken down by line and station, running from January 2010 and updated monthly. A companion dataset, 'Afluencia preliminar en transporte público', carries preliminary daily ridership reported by STC Metro, Metrobús, RTP, Tren Ligero, Trolebús and Ecobici. This is the published data layer behind the gate counts.
↗ La Prensa (OEM) — Metro ridership record for 2025 (16 Jan 2026)Carrying sentence for the impact figure: 'más de 1,241 millones de viajes' ('more than 1,241 million trips') across the 12 lines in 2025, with trains covering more than 40 million kilometres over 195 stations. This is the operator's own gate count reported in the press; metro.cdmx.gob.mx returned HTTP 503 through our proxy, hence the press citation. Reported identically by ejecentral and Posta.
↗ Milenio — card supply squeezed by the global chip shortage (12 Aug 2022)The failure side. Authorities warned of 'la posible insuficiencia de tarjetas' ('the possible insufficiency of cards') caused by 'el desabasto de chips electrónicos a nivel mundial' ('the worldwide shortage of electronic chips'). Same article: more than 70 per cent of Metro users were entering with the card and more than 11 million cards had been distributed by that point — the exposure that made a hardware shortage a transport problem.
↗ Infobae — the MI card balance expires (24 Oct 2024)Stored value, not an account: the balance is lost after 300 calendar days without a trip or a top-up, and there is no general refund route beyond replacement of lost or damaged cards. Corroborated by El Heraldo de México (3 Mar 2025), Milenio and El Gráfico (13 May 2025). Conflicting maximum-balance figures in circulation (120 vs 500 pesos) were dropped rather than reconciled.
↗ ADIP CDMX — virtual MI card in App CDMX v4 (December 2025)City digital agency announcement of the phone-based MI card, presented by Head of Government Clara Brugada: NFC on Android and Huawei only, iOS still pending, minimum 15-peso top-up by bank card or CoDi, login via Llave CDMX. Direct fetch returned HTTP 503 through our proxy; confirmed via Excélsior, Centro Urbano and El Financiero. Xataka had reported a year earlier that the promised virtual card was still in testing, which is why the entry treats it as a slipped rather than a delivered-on-time feature.
📎 Cite this project
1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Movilidad Integrada: One Fare Card Across Eight Transport Systems” — Mexico City, Mexico. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/mexico-city-movilidad-integrada/ (last verified 2026-07-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.
The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.
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