Line 12 of the Mexico City Metro was built by
Empresas ICA, in association with
Alstom Mexicana and
Grupo Carso. Nopalera is an
elevated station; the Nopalera–Zapotitlán interstation is long, while the Nopalera–Olivos section measures . The station was opened on 30 October 2012, on the first day of the
Mixcoac–
Tláhuac service. The facilities are
accessible to people with disabilities as there are elevators,
tactile pavings and
braille signage plates and there is a
bicycle parking station. Instead, the chosen name and pictogram allude to the pig and poultry farms that existed in the area which were surrounded by prickly pear plants. From 12 March 2014 to 29 November 2015, Nopalera was closed due to technical and structural faults in the stretch
Atlalilco–Tláhuac. After the
19 September 2017 earthquake damaged Line 12 tracks, Nopalera remained closed until 30 October 2017. According to the official report provided by the Metro system, the Olivos–Nopalera overpass was secured as Column 69 had a flexo-compression failure at the lower end. To repair it, weight was released,
epoxy resins were injected, additional reinforcement was placed, and the column was enlarged to its maximum stress zone. On 3 May 2021, the station was closed after a portion of Line 12's elevated railway
collapsed between Olivos and
Tezonco stations. Between Nopalera and Zapotitlán metro stations, there are two
sharp curves close to each other; the system marks them as Curves 11 and 12. Curve 11 has a radius of while Curve 12 has a radius of —both are the tightest of the overpass. According to the Metro union leader, the trains wear out the rails and wheels when there are sharp curves and cause them to clatter. This damage structures such as
girders and columns. After the 2017 earthquake, a girder in the section was reinforced with a diagonally-reinforced beam because a seismic top on Column 41 was damaged during the incident. The line uses
FE-10 steel-wheeled trains by
Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles. They have a length of and a width of . According to the former director of the system, Joel Ortega, trains do not exit a curve when they are already on the next one, and the maximum speed for taking them was adjusted to for safe train travel but the speed wears and tears on the tracks and wheels. He also said that damage to the tracks had been reported since 2012 and that of track had been replaced within a month of its inauguration. ==Ridership==