Work on the Arroyo El Sauz-Nuevo Laredo section includes:
- Construction of a single-track line exclusively for passenger rail service, alongside Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s existing freight rail line (part of its principal freight corridor: Mexico City–Querétaro–San Luis Potosí–Saltillo–Monterrey–Nuevo Laredo).
- 1.6-mile (2.5-kilometer)-long sidings every 12.4 miles (20 kilometers), plus crossovers allowing CPKC to access industry once the new passenger track is installed.
- Three stations (at Nuevo Laredo, Anáhuac, and Lampazos de Naranjo).
- 52 railway bridges.
- 108 drainage works.
- 42 vehicular (highway/rail grade) crossings.
This is one of six sections of the broader 244.2-mile (393.9-kilometer) Gulf of Mexico Train project from Saltillo to Nuevo Laredo. The other five sections are: the Derramadero–Ramos Arizpe line (33.5 miles/54.1 kilometers); Ramos Arizpe–Santa Catarina line (39.3 miles/63.3 kilometers); Monterrey–Joyas Anáhuac line (12 miles/19.4 kilometers); Joyas Anáhuac–Unión San Javier line (14.8 miles/23.8 kilometers); and Unión San Javier-Arroyo El Sauz line (61.9 miles/23.8 kilometers).
According to Andrés Lajous Loaeza, the head of the Railway Transport Regulatory Agency (ARTF), trains on the Saltillo-Nuevo Laredo line will run at maximum speeds of between 160 kilometers per hour and 200 kilometers per hour and will travel from Monterrey to Nuevo Laredo in just under two hours and from Saltillo in three and a half hours, the government reported.
The Gulf of Mexico Train project is part of Mexico’s National Railway Plan, which aims to restore passenger services on approximately 2,100 miles (more than 3,400 kilometers) of main lines across the country, according to a July 2025 report by Kevin Smith and William C. Vantuono, chief editors of International Railway Journal and Railway Age, respectively.
Bidding was under way this summer for contracts to upgrade infrastructure and restore passenger services along two segments of freight main line: the Saltillo–Nuevo Laredo line (CPKC) and the 66.8-mile (107.8-kilometer) Querétaro–Irapuato line (Ferromex). Both projects are included in the National Railway Plan’s first phase. Passenger services along the Ferromex right-of-way involve three lines: Mexico City–Querétaro–Irapuato–León–Aguascalientes–Chihuahua–Ciudad Juárez; Manzanillo–Colima–Guadalajara–Irapuato; and Mexico City–Querétaro–Guadalajara–Tepic–Mazatlán–Nogales.
