Mexico plans to expand its passenger rail network northward with new lines connecting Mexico City to the U.S. border and Guadalajara, the country’s second-largest city.
Future president Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that three new rail lines are planned that, in principle, will take advantage of the current right-of-way for freight trains with the aim of building parallel tracks for electric passenger trains that can travel at a speed of up to 160 kilometers per hour and that would presumably run confined, that is, between walls.
“Our goal is trains similar to the Maya Train to the north,” Sheinbaum said.
An initial estimate of the costs is $26 billion, a figure that seems small if one takes into account that the Maya Train, Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s flagship mega-project that is still unfinished and stretches over 1,500 kilometers, has already required an investment of more than $30 billion.
One of the lines will run from Mexico City to Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Monterrey —the industrial capital of Mexico— and end in Nuevo Laredo, a city on the border with Texas, a journey of more than 1,100 kilometers.
Another line would run from Querétaro to Guanajuato and eventually reach Guadalajara, and could potentially be extended along the Pacific coast to Nogales, on the border with Arizona, although Sheinbaum said it is possible that this second section could not be developed during her administration, which will begin on October 1 and end in 2030.
The third line would extend the section currently under construction to connect the capital with the Felipe Ángeles airport to Pachuca, 90 kilometers north of Mexico City.
Sheinbaum explained that she is analyzing the right-of-way status of all the new sections to be built in order to negotiate with the current concessionaires, who would maintain their cargo services, and to be able to carry out the tenders for the new works as soon as her government begins.
He also said that studies are being carried out to determine which sections are most in demand by citizens, including the connections between the capital and Querétaro and Guadalajara.
“The goal is to connect our country by maintaining freight trains, which have enormous potential… and what that means is the creation of jobs linked to public works that boost private investment,” said the future president.
Sheinbaum had already announced that the Armed Forces will continue to be involved in the development of all these projects and that her goal is to have the new trains built in Mexico as well.
“It would be the same way the Maya Train was built, partly with military engineers and partly with companies,” he said on Monday.
The Maya Train, which will connect tourist sites on the Yucatan Peninsula, the unfinished megaproject in the southeast of the country, was heavily criticized for its major environmental impact and uncertain economic profitability.
The cost of that and other railways has led the López Obrador administration to register a budget deficit of almost 6% of the Gross Domestic Product.
Other passenger trains of the current administration whose construction has not yet been completed are the one that connects the center of the capital with the most recent airport and the one that links Mexico City with Toluca, to the west.
The Mexican Railway Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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