Dates Set for Mayan Train Completion
The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, says that the remaining sections of the Mayan Train project on the Yucatán peninsula will open to traffic early next month.
“On September 6, 7 and 8 the 1,500 kilometers [932 miles] of the Mayan Train will be finished,” he told reporters attending his daily press conference on Aug. 5.
No further details of the opening schedule were provided. The sections of the 1525-kilometer (948-mile) Mayan Train project that remain to be completed include the 67.7-kilometer (42.07-mile) Section 5 South between Playa del Carmen and Tulum.
Work is also continuing on the 256-kilometer (159-mile) Section 6 from Tulum to Bacalar and Chetumal, and the 256-kilometer (159-mile) Section 7 from Bacalar to Escárcega.
López Obrador noted that many legal challenges had been made in an attempt to stop the Mayan Train project.
In February, a judge ordered work to be suspended on Section 5 South, amid allegations that viaduct piling work had caused environmental damage and water contamination. This ruling was ignored, however.
“They are still trying to stop the train, but they are not going to stop it because we are going to have the whole train at the beginning of September,” López Obrador says.
Also attending the presidential press conference was Mayan Train Director General, General Óscar David Lozano Águila, who provided an update on traffic being carried on the 239-kilometer (149-mile) Section 4 from Izamal to Cancún Airport.
The double-track electrified line opened on Dec. 15, 2023, as part of the first phase of the Mayan Train project, running for 473 kilometers (294 miles) from San Francisco de Campeche to Cancún Airport. Section 4 has intermediate stations at Chichén Itzá, Valladolid and Nuevo Xcán.
Lozano Águila reported that 89,158 passengers had been carried on Section 4, with 65,293 tickets sold at ticket offices and 23,865 by the Mayan Train website.
A total of 21,582 local residents had travelled on Mayan Train services, as well as 43,742 tourists from elsewhere in Mexico and 6,253 from abroad.
Traffic on Section 4 accounted for 30% of the 297,237 passengers carried by Mayan Train services in total.
“Demand is growing by 13%,” Lozano Águila says, “which makes us very proud.”
Further Reading:
- Mexico’s Next President Continues Passenger Train Revival
- Mayan Train Full Opening Delayed to Late August
- Next Section of Mexico’s Mayan Train Opens
- Report: Tren Maya Inauguration Pushed to June
- Alstom Delivers First Tren Maya Equipment
- Mayan Train Extended to Palenque
- Mexican President Opens First Section of Mayan Train
- First Section of Mayan Train to Open Dec. 15
- Alstom Consortium Wins Mayan Train Rolling Stock and Systems Contract
