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July 16, 2024|Regulatory

Mexico’s Next President Continues Passenger Train Revival

Written by Robert Preston, Associate Editor, International Railway Journal
Apart from new projects, tourist trains are all that remain of Mexico's long-distance passenger network. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum will focus on routes from Mexico City to the north.

Mexico’s president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum says that her administration will continue the program to reintroduce long-distance passenger services to the national rail network, but with a focus on lines running north from Mexico City to the U.S. border.

Sheinbaum is due to take up office on Oct. 1, succeeding Andres Manuel López Obrador who has prioritized the Mayan Train and Isthmus of Tehuantepec projects in southern Mexico.

His administration has also more recently commissioned studies from Mexico’s three major freight operators, asking them to examine the feasibility of reintroducing passenger services on eight routes. These include the lines from Mexico City to Nogales and Ciudad Juárez on the U.S. border.

“Now we are going to go towards the north,” Sheinbaum says. Just more than 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) of lines have opened to passenger traffic this year, and the president-elect plans to double this figure, with projects including a new service to Nuevo Laredo on the U.S. border.

Any new construction required is likely to be undertaken following the model of the Mayan Train project, which combines new lines with upgrading existing infrastructure. Civil works have been undertaken by Mexican army engineers as well as private contractors.

Sheinbaum aims to tender works this year for construction to start in 2025. She has also stated her intention to complete the Mayan Train and Isthmus of Tehuantepec projects, extending the former to Puerto Progreso in the state of Yucatán and the latter to Dos Bocas in Tabasco.

During a press conference on July 11, López Obrador said that his successor was intending to follow his administration in securing access rights for passenger services as established in the Mexican constitution.

“If the state is going to use the lines with the intention of introducing passenger trains, the state has the right to do so, it can use the lines,” López Obrador says.

“It also has a mandate to organize or plan train movements,” he says, “and we’re talking about giving preference to passenger services.” This would also involve the construction of new sections of track for passenger services, according to the president.