Indios Verdes metro station

Indios Verdes metro station is a station of the Mexico City Metro along Insurgentes Norte Avenue in the colonias (neighborhoods) of Residencial Zacatenco and Santa Isabel Tola, in Gustavo A. Madero, Mexico City. It is an at-grade station with two island platforms that serves as the northern terminus of Line 3 (the Olive Line). It is followed by Deportivo 18 de Marzo station. The station and its surrounding area are named this way because of the verdigris statues of Itzcoatl and Ahuitzotl, both Aztec rulers. They are located in Mestizaje Park and are collectively known as the Monumento a los Indios Verdes; the silhouettes of the statues are depicted in the pictogram. The station was opened on 1 December 1979, on the first day of service between Indios Verdes and Hospital General stations.

The station facilities are partially accessible to people with disabilities as there are tactile pavings and braille signage plates. The station is commonly ranked among the most crowded stations in the system. In 2019, the station had an average daily ridership of 107,376 passengers, making it the 3rd busiest station in the system and the busiest of the line.

Location and station layout
Indios Verdes is a metro station along Insurgentes Norte Avenue, located in the colonia (Mexican Spanish for "neighborhoods") of Residencial Zacatenco and Santa Isabel Tola, in the Gustavo A. Madero borough, in northern Mexico City. Within the system, Deportivo 18 de Marzo is the next station. The station facilities are partially accessible to people with disabilities as there are tactile pavings and braille signage plates.

There are four exits, one each to the northeast and northwest of the station and one to the southeast and southwest of it. The Centro de transferencia modal (CETRAM), a transportation hub with a surface area of 91,785 m2, provides service to the Indios Verdes metro station. From there, commuters can use a variety of routes and modes of transportation. The area is serviced by Lines 1, 3, and 7 of the Metrobús system; Line IV of the Mexibús system; Line 1 of the Cablebús network, and Line 2 of the Mexicable network. Local buses that leave the area include the Routes 101, 101-A, 101-B, 101-D, 102, 107-B, and 108 of the Red de Transporte de Pasajeros network. Additionally, there were 28 pesero routes (bus and minibus transportation routes), that left from different locations within the city and the metropolitan area as of 2017.

Street stalls abound in the CETRAM, where commuters may purchase street food, clothing, accessories, flowers, presents, and telephone accessories. There are bout 1,000 vendors, according to the sellers themselves.

The railyard and the line's workshop, named Ticomán, are both adjacent to the station.

History and construction
Line 3 of the Mexico City Metro was built by Ingeniería de Sistemas de Transportes Metropolitano, Electrometro, and Cometro (a division of Empresas ICA); It was built at-grade; the Indios Verdes–Deportivo 18 de Marzo stretch has a length of 1166 m.

Indios Verdes metro station opened on 1 December 1979, on the first day of the Indios Verdes–Hospital General service. Originally, Line 8 (which runs from downtown Mexico City to Constitución de 1917 station in Iztapalapa) was planned to run from Pantitlán, in eastern Mexico City, to Indios Verdes station. The project was canceled due to potential structural issues it would have caused near the Zócalo zone as it was planned to interchange with Line 2 at Zócalo station. The project of Line 8 was later modified to run from Indios Verdes to Constitución de 1917 station. However, its construction did not go beyond Garibaldi / Lagunilla metro station, its provisional terminal since 1994.

The CETRAM began reorganization in 2020. The project plans to demolish the Metrobús station serving lines 1 and 3 and the temporary Mexibús station and place them next to the metro station. It is also intended to reorganize the bus hub and facilitate the connection of the stations with a series of pedestrian bridges that will connect them to the Cablebús, Metrobús Line 7, and Mexicable services.

Name and pictogram
The station is named after the verdigris statues of Aztec Tlatoque Itzcoatl and Ahuitzotl, collectively known as the Monumento a los Indios Verdes (Green Indians Monument). The pictogram also features silhouettes of the statues. In April 2023, Adriana Espinosa de los Monteros, a representative for the National Regeneration Movement party in the Congress of Mexico City, proposed renaming the metro station to Estación Emperadores Mexicas (Mexica Emperors station), because she believes that the term Indian is derogatory, discriminatory, and "[is still used] with the intention of hurting the susceptibility of the receiver of the message by considering him or her inferior because he or she is poor or because he or she comes from a native people" and that the change is necessary "in order to respect the spirit of the Political Constitution of Mexico City". The proposed renaming would only apply to that particular metro station; it makes no mention of any nearby stations or the Monumento a los Indios Verdes. Transport operators in the station area considered that the change is unnecessary and that it will not have any effect on commuters.

Incidents
Around 7:30 in the morning on 12 April 2013, an explosion was heard on the stairs leading to CETRAM's I platform with no injuries or damage reported. A box containing explosives, cables, pellets, a battery, and a watch was allegedly deposited on the steps leading to exit I by a man, who was aided by an accomplice who functioned as a lookout, according to the authorities. On 10 February 2021, in the midst of a rainy afternoon, an approaching train caught fire on the platform with no passengers reported harmed.

On 20 April 2021, the third railcar of a train derailed when the driver performed a maneuver at the Ticomán railyard. No injuries were reported but the train had to be taken out of service. Again, on March 30, 2023, another train had a similar incident.

Indios Verdes is one of the metro stations that floods the most frequently when it rains heavily.

Ridership
According to the data provided by the authorities since the 2000s, Indios Verdes metro station has been one of the busiest stations of the system's 195 stations. Before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public transport, commuters averaged per year between 107,376 and 120,800 daily entrances between 2014 and 2019; the station had a ridership of 39,192,273 passengers in 2019, which represented a decrease of 1,109,896 passengers compared to 2018. Also in 2019, Indios Verdes metro station was the third busiest of the system's 195 stations and it was the busiest of the line.