Transport Infrastructure Interdependency: Metro’s Failure Propagation in the Road Transport System in Mexico City

Jaime Santos-Reyes, Diego Padilla-Perez and Alan N Beard
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Jaime Santos-Reyes: Grupo de Investigación, SARACS, SEPI-ESIME, ZAC. Instituto Politécnico Nacional, 07738 Mexico City, Mexico
Diego Padilla-Perez: Grupo de Investigación, SARACS, SEPI-ESIME, ZAC. Instituto Politécnico Nacional, 07738 Mexico City, Mexico
Alan N Beard: Civil Engineering Section, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, Scotland, UK

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 17, 1-24

Abstract: On Friday, 3 March 2017, at about 18:19 h, a metro track failed, prompting about 50% of Mexico City’s metro line-C to a halt. The track failure occurred at a peak hour when tens of thousands of commuters were heading to their homes. Given the interdependency among the modes of transportation in the capital city, the incident caused heavy disruption; it is believed that about 45,000 commuters were affected. A systemic safety management system (‘SSMS’) model has been used for the analysis. The results showed that: a) the model demonstrated its potential to the analysis of the transport system interdependency; it has been found that failure propagates vertically and horizontally; b) the model highlighted that failure propagation has to do with a coordination function; c) in relation to the case study, it has been found that the actions taken by the decision-makers during the emergency were less than adequate; d) the commuters traveling patterns should be considered when designing emergency plans; and, e) more generally, there is a need for the creation of a system to manage critical infrastructure protection in the context of Mexico. It is hoped that by conducting such analyses, we may gain a better understanding of the complexity of cities.

Keywords: critical infrastructures; interdependency; Mexico City; transport system network; SSMS model; failure propagation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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