The Southernmost Metro in North America - Successes of Panama City Metro

Today I give a brief overview of one of the most promising new rapid transit systems in the world. The Panama Metro has proved itself to be an excellent metro with superb design and execution. I also mention a few of the enduring issues present when it comes to the metro, as well as urbanism in Panama City in general.
Music used: Tokyo Music Walker - Way Home
• Way Home - Tokyo Music...
The Wikipedia article I sourced a few times (among other sources linked there):
en.wikipedia.o...
Panama Metro Footage:
• The Metro in Panama Ci...

[@PAnon-sama]

Great video review on the metro of my city. Thanks a lot for making it.

[@user-bs1zo6tr2g]

I rode this a few months ago first time I visited. I could not imagine how Panama City functioned without it.

one of the best analysis i have seen

[@OneOneTwo112]

Humorously enough I just went to Panama City in December of 2023 and took a few hours to ride the entire system! It's quite impressive, with great headways, beautiful station design, slick trains, and 100% accessibility across the board. I agree that the Panama Metro is one of the most promising new metro systems in the world today, and I think it compares quite favorably to the Singapore MRT when it first started out. However, I do feel the need to offer a quick correction. The fare is indeed 35 cents on Line 1, but the fare actually changes depending on when you get on and off (you have to tap in and out of the system like on the Washington Metro or London Underground using a bank card or the Sistema Integrado de Transporte Publico Urbano aka the transit fare card). If you take a journey exclusively on L1, the journey costs 35 cents. A journey exclusively on L2 or El Ramal (the airport branch that runs between Corridor Sur and Aeroperuto) costs 50 cents. A journey that uses both L1 & L2/El Ramal costs 85 cents. I didn't know this either until I went even after tons of research so I don't fault you for leaving this part out. I do also have one more criticism that you didn't mention: El Ramal (which only opened in March 2023) has headways of every 10 minutes and is single tracked after the intermediate station ITSE which I can forsee becoming a serious problem when L1/L2 have far better headways. The transfer station at Corridor Sur looked like it could handle large crowds now...but I'm not sure how true that will be when L3-L9 open up in the coming years...
All in all though, like you said, the system has a very bright future ahead of it IMO. Feel free to ask me any other questions if you want me to talk about the riding experience as a tourist :).

[@jayfielding1333]

You nailed it with the part about being fortunate to be a linear city. Always the most compatible with mass rapid transit. Great vid.

[@stroll-and-roll]

Very good video! I was always interested in Panama City Metro, since i have been there once for a day. I really need to go back some day.

[@theonlyway4366]

Make sure you use the Metro at your arrival right there from the airport 😊

[@stroll-and-roll]

@@theonlyway4366 I would very much like to do that. Metros are the best mode of transportation in a city imo.

[@userrandomexe]

Fun fact: the third line has a 56% advance and will finish in 2026
beacause the construction will go under the panama canal.

[@solo_choco]

5:22 Cerro Viento Station is a particular case. Neighborhoods aren't close to the station (in any case) but they still have a bus route. Same applies to Brisas de Golf Station. Both Brisas del Golf and San Antonio have their own stations and people have more than one option to access their neighborhoods. A questionable point that I won't deny is the bus frequency.

[@Gemini.1997]

Rode this when studying there in 2017. Panama City also is really dense, and European compared to the US. 5 de mayo super busy right by the big market, and like 10 min walk from Old Town.

[@stickynorth]

Awesome video! New subscriber because of it! Canadian and Central American cities tend to be well used because they don't have much car infrastructure destroying their central cores since most cities planned ring roads late and were thrown away for rapid transit early, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver most specifically... As a result all three LRT lines have subway-like usage including the NORTHERN MOST MAJOR CITY IN THE AMERICAS, EDMONTON, ,which was the first North American city to relaunch modern LRT as an option in 1978 back when it was a city of 475,000 and the most sprawling and car-centric in Canada which it largely is to this day despite now having 1,000,000+ residents in the city proper, another 500,000 in the suburban belt around it, 40 km of LRT as of 2024 all while still having an average density that is Houston or Phoenix-esque...

[@InimigodoLinkedin]

I find really interesting how the ciudad de panama metro is really similar in its design as the Salvador Metro (BRA).
Both have 2 lines of roughly the same size that opened around the same years, while line 1 has an underground section that leads to the city center and line 2 conects the airport to one of line 1 stations. Also, salvador is (supposedly) constructing 2 more lines that will be monorails, just like CdP.
One curiosity is that the company who was awarded the construction of line 2 of ciudad de panama is brazilian AND from Salvador. I wonder how much of these similarities come from the consultancy of them just working on the same projects at the same time kkkk

[@YukiKonan]

Great video❤ love my city but have lot of things to improve. Hope next government gets better😅

[@IamTheHolypumpkin]

It heavily depends on your linguistical background.
In many Germanic languages like, English, German, Dutch there are usually North and South America. Sometimes three with Central American. But the borders where one America begins and the other ends are really fuzzy and are heavily depending on social-economic status and political beliefs.
On the other hand in many Latin based languages like Spanish there is only a single America. No South no North. I do not know how indigenous language subdivided (or not subdivided the continent) but in my opinion we should use the divisions if indigenous languages.

[@edwardmiessner6502]

😭😭😭 Cries in USAmerican

[@tintin3]

Good pronunciation..👍

[@NADA9428]

wanna give my two cents as a panamanian and say that you deduced correctly what stations are more comfortable and what one are less integrated to the city, while less of a "calm downtown station" as santo tomas is, via argentina station is one of the non-terminal stations with more popularity, with walking connections to el cangrejo district , a bohemian artisty mixed use dense neighborhood, and the financial district in calle 50.

[@LuisRodriguez-tm1ld]

Comments are high as f. North America is one continent ,South America is another completely unique continent. Central America is a region in North America from Guatemala to Panama and often including the Caribbean. Latin Americans especially in South America don’t see it as 1 continent.

[@stickynorth]

Bingo! Only Americans would treat Panama as not part of CONCACAF... As a Canadian we definitely know its part of North America!

[@camilojaen2211]

America is divided in two subcontinental masses the North American and the South American subcontinents

[@carlosrivera3260]

How is Panama North America? 🤔

[@eranreznic9583]

North America is a continent, Central America is a region which is part of north america

[@bertoberr]

@@eranreznic9583 ask Latin Americans and most Europeans, it’s all one American continent with three regions: North, Central, and South.

[@RendererEP]

Central America is a region, not a continent. Unlike North America and South America. Or even if you look at both as one continent.

[@deanl4575]

@@RendererEPIn the English language yes, but in Spanish speaking countries no

[@stickynorth]

Technically Panama City spawls over both halves of the now separated North and South America, so the best analogy is a "New World Istanbul"... And ironically it looks like their Metro stock is almost identical too!

[@user-dz4tp8qd5n]

América es un continente dividido en regiones. Panamá está en Centroamérica, no en el inexistente "continente" de Norteamérica.

[@PuNicAdbo]

Buuuuhhh pheonix 👎👎👎 maybe pheonix has to go down to rise up again as a real city

[@JkWillis]

At least Phoenix has the Valley Metro Rail. It goes places I guess.

[@baruense]

I'm from Panama and we are in Central America.. Not North America. North America are only Canada, USA and Mexico 🇵🇦

[@camilojaen2211]

We are part of the North American Continent

[@baruense]

@@camilojaen2211 you are wrong buddy. Good lucky

[@yagi3925]

Panama in North America??! WTF!... Time to take some geography lessons.

[@TheJamieRamone]

That's not north America, that's CENTRAL America.

[@JkWillis]

Central America is a part of North America. It's more like South-North America.

[@tarriochu95]

@@JkWillis nah dude xd, america is divided in 3, south, central, and north, north is only mexico, us, and canada. but we might have different systems

[@TheJamieRamone]

@@JkWillis Or North-South America.

[@bertoberr]

@@JkWillis And if you ask Latin Americans and most Europeans, it’s all one American continent with three regions: North, Central, and South.

[@brassmonkey4288]

@@tarriochu95North America is a continent, Central America is a region on the North American continent.

[@trainglen22]

Panama is in Central America! Mexico is part of North America.

[@kellybrown8638]

Sweetie, NO ONE in Panama considers themselves "North American"

[@sinnombre5278]

America is the continent not North America

[@tarriochu95]

nice video