By Mexico News Daily Staff
Visionary development, or destructive white elephant? Few infrastructure projects have recently generated such heated debate in Mexico as the Maya Train (Tren Maya), President López Obrador’s long-promised railroad in the Yucatán Peninsula. The Maya Train is among AMLO’s special pet projects. He has championed it through numerous lawsuits, local and international criticism, technical delays, and route changes—he even declared it a matter of national security, putting it under the control of the military.
How big is the Maya Train?
The finished railroad will have 1,554 km of track and 34 stations. It will pass through 40 municipalities in five states—Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo.
How does the train compare to other international trains by length?
According to Alstrom, the company contracted to build the trains, the rail line will have 42 trains in operation that can move at a top speed of 176 km/h for passengers and 120 km/h for cargo. The government hopes to move 200,000 people per day by 2030.
How long will it take?
Construction on the Maya Train started on May 4, 2020. Projections are for the railway to begin operations on December 1, 2023, after a construction time of 1,306 days, or under three years and seven months. This projection may be optimistic since only around 460 km of track had been completed in February—just under 30% of the total.
How much will it cost?
The project’s estimated cost is around 300 billion pesos (US$16.5 billion)—nearly 150% more than its original estimate of 120 billion pesos (US$6.6 billion).
In 2023, the Maya Train project will be a major expenditure for the López Obrador administration—nearly the amount it will spend on social welfare programs and about one-third of what it will spend on education. Ticket prices will be calculated per kilometer. They are expected to range between 50 pesos per sector for locals and 1,000 pesos for tourists.
How many people are involved?
The government claims that the Maya Train has already created at least 114,000 jobs in southeast Mexico. The company in charge of the project, Tren Maya S.A. de C.V., employs 338 staff, of whom 138 are military personnel. In February, the Defense Ministry (Sedena) announced that it would allocate 4,931 National Guard members, 28 drones, five helicopters, and three air bases to provide security to the project.
What is the archaeological impact?
A huge project to register and preserve archaeological sites in the affected areas, employing around 500 archaeologists, accompanied the Maya Train’s construction. By March 2023, the National Institute for Anthropology and History (INAH) had registered 46,416 historical dwellings, 1,795 artifacts, 490 skeletons, and 1,261 natural formations, such as caves and sinkhole lakes.
What is the environmental and social impact?
The Maya Train has been controversial from the beginning. It has already faced at least 50 lawsuits seeking to stop its construction, according to a statement made by President López Obrador in February. Environmental organizations and grassroots groups, who fear its impact on the region’s jungles, wildlife, cenotes (sinkhole lakes), and indigenous communities, have brought most of the lawsuits.
The Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) says the railroad will affect 13 national protected areas, plus nine state and municipal natural reserves. Since 53% of the route runs through communal ejido lands, social conflict is possible. The railroad could also cause 2,500 hectares of direct deforestation and raise the annual rate of deforestation in the region over this decade by a quarter, according to the Mexican environmental watchdog group Net-Zero Deforestation Observatory.
The government claims it will counter this impact through the social and environmental program Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life), which plans to reforest around 500 million trees in southeast Mexico.
