Cancún’s Ruta Mar Beach Shuttle to Suspend Service Until Mid-December

Cancún, Quintana Roo — The Ruta Mar beach shuttle program will suspend both of its routes starting Sept. 18, with service expected to resume in mid-December, the Municipal Institute for Urban Development Planning (Implan) announced.

Héctor Sánchez Tirado, the institute’s director, said the operational pause responds to the arrival of the rainy season, which sharply reduces ridership on routes running to the beach zone.

“Ruta Mar goes into recess for the holidays. Last year we started the service in December because we know this is the rainy season, and when it rains on us we have almost no users,” Sánchez Tirado said. “We will go into recess in September, October and November, and in December we will restart.”

He said the city government is weighing an expansion of the program in coordination with the municipal council, contingent on available funding.

Among the routes under consideration is a new line starting at Avenida La’kin, a project being studied technically to avoid duplicating coverage with the new corridors of the Quintana Roo Welfare Mobility System (MOBI).

Less than a year after its launch, the program’s fleet of four buses, split between the Rancho Viejo and Tres Reyes routes, moves an average of roughly 50,000 passengers.

The Tres Reyes line remains the busiest route in the system. According to the Implan director, the service has cut travel time from that border district to the first beach from two hours to between 35 and 40 minutes.

“Being able to get from Tres Reyes to the first beach in 40 minutes lets residents make the trip in both directions and avoid spending money on meals out with the family. They can leave the beach at one in the afternoon and be home by two,” he said.

“Fare costs, travel time and meals away from home were the factors that discouraged people from visiting the beaches,” Sánchez Tirado added.