Mexico’s $30B Jungle Railway

Mexico is about to finish building one of its  biggest and most ambitious infrastructure projects to date. This is the Tren Maya. An intercity  railway project that aims to connect many of the tourist hotspots and archaeological sites  within the Yucatán Peninsula.

Promising jobs and economic opportunities to Mexico’s largely  impoverished and neglected southern regions. However, despite its potential benefits, there  are genuine environmental and cultural concerns. Is the Tren Maya going to be exactly what Mexico  needs?

And will enough people actually use it? Hi, my name is Regis, and with the project  almost fully complete, let’s take a look at how it’s all turning out. The Tren Maya is located here.

It will be a 1,500 kilometer rail network running  in a loop around the Yucatán Peninsula. A region of Mexico that is home to some of the most  luxurious coastal tourist destinations in the country. One such famous destination  is the Riviera Maya — a stretch of coast between Cancún and Tulum known for its  white sand beaches and high-end hotels and resorts.

This region alone sees an upwards  of as much as 33 million visitors each year. But, this place hasn’t always been like this.  Thousands of years ago, even before the arrival of the Spanish, this area was once home to the  Maya civilization.

The original and indigenous population of the Yucatán Peninsula. Hence,  the name of the megaproject. During their time, the Maya built countless different cities,  temples, and pyramids.

Some of which are still standing up to this very day, and have  become popular tourist destinations in their own right. One great example of this is the  ruins of the ancient city of Chichén Itzá which is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. However, despite this thriving and lucrative tourism sector, southeastern Mexico isn’t  exactly the easiest place to get around in.

Which has created a very unique and  interesting problem. Cancún, for example, which has a very high concentration of  tourists, is relatively isolated from the rest of the peninsula inland. Most visitors  arrive in the city through Cancún International Airport — the country’s second busiest airport. 

Tourists come here for the hotels and beaches, but exploring the region further inland is quite  time consuming as the infrastructure is lacking. For example, the shortest possible route from  Cancún to Chichén Itzá takes as much as three hours by bus assuming that there isn’t much  traffic. And that’s just the time it takes to get there.

That’s going to be another three  looong hours sitting on a bus on the way back. Other archaeological sites are even more remote to  the point that they’re rarely visited, if at all. The Tren Maya aims to solve this very problem  by connecting many of these tourist hotspots, such as Cancún, Tulum, Mérida, Playa del Carmen,  and of course, Chichén Itzá, with each other.

The entire route will be divided into  seven different segments. Segment 1, which is the only section that isn’t part of the  main loop, goes from the city of Palenque towards Escárcega and serves as a gateway for the entire  system connecting it to the rest of the country. The six remaining segments make up the loop  around the peninsula itself.

With segments 2, 3, and 4 connecting Escárcega all the way to  the city of Cancún by the Caribbean coast. This part of the network goes through some notable  destinations such as the famous Chichén Itzá, and the capital city of the state of Yucatán, Mérida.  Finally, segments 5, 6, and 7 complete the loop down south connecting Cancún back to Escárcega  while passing through tourist hotspots such as Playa del Carmen and Tulum as well as the  city of Chetumal near the border with Belize.

Tren Maya will have a total of 20 stations and  14 stops and is expected to carry as much as 22,000 to 37,000 passengers each day. Keep this  figure in mind, as it will be crucial later on. Aside from serving tourists, the network  will also be used for local passenger traffic between cities and towns as well  as freight shipments along the route.

Around 40%, or 700 kilometers of the entire  network will be fully electrified. This includes a section of the route that goes  between Mérida and Chetumal via Cancún. The remaining 60% will be hybrid powered  running both on diesel and electricity.

Construction on the Tren Maya began back  in June 2020 under the administration of then Mexican president Andrés Manuel López  Obrador. Part of the project will make use of existing right of way, meaning that  in some areas, the route will have land that has either already been cleared or  with tracks already laid on the ground. Initially, the project was being built by various  Mexican and Chinese construction companies.

But interestingly, as of September 2023, both the  construction and operation of the Tren Maya has now been fully transferred to the Secretariat  of National Defense and the military. This has been a recurring pattern all throughout the  president’s administration wherein many different infrastructure projects are being carried  out by the military. According to Obrador this is being done as a “means to guarantee  good administration”.

However there might be another reason, but more on that later. When it was first announced back in 2018, the initial cost estimate for the entire project  was somewhere around $7. 4 billion USD and will primarily be funded by the government  through its National Tourism Fund.

However, according to the most recent figures, that amount  has now risen to as much as $30 billion USD. Despite multiple delays because of the  COVID-19 pandemic as well as a court ruling that temporarily halted all construction, the  first segments of the Tren Maya that runs from Campeche to Cancún opened to the public back in  December 2023. Just three and a half years after construction began.

Which is actually very  impressive. But, it doesn’t end just there. Just two weeks after this, the rest of the route  from Cancún to Palenque also began operations, extending the operational segments of the system  by more than 300 kilometers further south.

Two months later, another vital segment of the  network opened to the public that runs from Cancún to Playa del Carmen passing through  some of the areas around the Riviera Maya. Back in September 2024, this coastal part  of the project was further extended south up until the city of Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Just nine days after the previous extension, the station located in the city of Chetumal was  inaugurated by López Obrador just a few days before he leaves office and the new president  assumes his position.

However, this new station does not yet connect to the rest of the system as  part of Segment 6 between Felipe Carrillo Puerto and Bacalar as well as the entirety of Segment 7  is still under construction. As of October 2024, this station in Chetumal is primarily used  only for travel to Bacalar and vice versa. Some estimates place the full completion of  the entire project some time in the middle of 2025, with the remaining unfinished  segments currently 70% of the way done.

Aside from the already mentioned segments of the  Tren Maya, the newly-elected president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, vows to further extend  the project and better connect it with the rest of Mexico’s national train system. This comes  to no surprise as Sheinbaum is known to be a close political ally of the former president  and she is even considered as his protégé. She won nearly 60% of the vote and was sworn in  as Mexico’s first female president.

While this is a significant milestone, she faces numerous  challenges as the country faces pressing problems. This overview from our sponsor Ground News is  based on over 250 articles covering this topic. And each of them reports slightly differently.

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Thanks a lot! And now, let’s take a look at the Tren Maya and which extensions Claudia  Sheinbaum is talking about. One such addition that she has  committed to building is a 50-kilometer extension from the city of Mérida up north to  the port city of Progreso.

Aside from this, she is also looking at the possibility of creating  a new alignment that would connect the state of Veracruz and the Trans-Isthmus Railway to the city  of Palenque and the rest of the Tren Maya network. One of the main reasons why the Tren Maya  was even built in the first place was to redistribute the high concentration of tourists  by the Caribbean coast to the rest of Yucatán Peninsula inland. But, that is far from being  the only potential benefit of this megaproject.

Aside from tourists now being able to easily  explore even more of Mexico, the Tren Maya also doubles as a passenger rail service that can  be used by locals to travel between different cities within the region for work or other  personal reasons. We’ve also mentioned that the network will be used for freight transport  as well, making this single project solve many of the region’s logistical problems all at once. This increased movement between cities within the Yucatán Peninsula also encourages development  and plenty of economic opportunities to the local population of these areas.

A region of the country  that has largely been neglected by the government. In fact, when it comes to employment,  just the construction of the trains for the project alone has already created more  than 10,000 jobs for the local population. A UN analysis has even estimated that by 2030,  the entire megaproject will have generated a total of 945,000 new jobs.

Potentially lifting  hundreds of thousands of locals out of poverty. However, despite its many potential  benefits, this project also has its environmental and social costs. For one, the Tren Maya is being built in one of the most densely forested regions in the  entire continent.

It should be no surprise that millions upon millions of trees are being cut  down to make way for its construction. Mexico has already admitted that as much as 3. 4 million  trees have already been cut down as a result of the construction work.

But, that’s assuming that  their figures are as accurate as they present it to be. Other estimates put the figure somewhere  between 6 million up to a staggering 10 million trees that have already been felled. And the  project isn’t even fully complete yet.

Mexico says that they do plan to replant all the forest that  has been destroyed because of the construction. However, the trees on the surface aren’t the  only things in danger of being destroyed by this project. Just below the surface of  the Yucatán Peninsula lies a series of underground rock formations known locally  as cenotes.

These have historically been, and still remain, as an important source of  freshwater for the local population. But with the recent construction work that’s being done, these  cenotes are now at risk of being contaminated or just outright being completely destroyed. And by transferring the project and framing it as a project of national security,  the Mexican government can bypass certain legal and regulatory hurdles, including  environmental and community-based challenges.

Another issue that many people have against this  project is that it could potentially lead to the destruction of newly unearthed ancient ruins and  artifacts from the Maya civilization. The figures vary from source to source with some estimates  placing the number of these discoveries from just 1,000, to as much as 25,000 in some reports. The construction of this project could destroy, damage, or completely bury some of these sites  forever.

And although several of these ruins are, and can be, protected by Mexican law, not all of  them will be. Especially given how fast-tracked this entire project seems to be going. But, what do you think?

Should these ancient ruins come in the way of a modern project  that could potentially benefit us today? Looking at the railway today, most of  its segments are now already open to the public. But, how exactly is it doing so far?

When the project was first being conceived, it was estimated that the whole system would see  as much as 22,000-37,000 passengers each day. But as of the most recent figures, that number  is only reaching as far as 1,200. However, it is still worth noting that the Tren Maya still  isn’t fully built.

And they still haven’t started operating at full capacity. Knowing this, the  network’s ridership could still increase over time, though we think it is still a looong way  to go and just doesn’t seem realistic today. .

But, who knows! ? Maybe they can pull it  off!

And they kind of have to in order to be able to pay for the cost of the construction. One possible way is to increase ridership of local residents by adjusting the marketing more into  this direction. After all, the train doesn’t just go through tourist destinations and archaeological  sites.

It could probably also work as a dedicated passenger or commuter line. Therefore the  pricing needs to be more affordable tho. The train line’s ridership numbers could  also benefit by making its ticket pricing competitive when compared to local buses.

As of  the most recent figures, a bus ride from Cancún to Chichén Itzá costs roughly $13 USD and  takes around three hours and a half. While, on the other hand, the train ride costs as much  as $30 USD and takes only two and a half hours. While that time difference  may seem like it's not much, riding a train is definitely much more  efficient overall and it isn’t susceptible to traffic jams the same way buses are.

So  you’re probably gonna be saving more time. As it stands today, with the numbers and  figures that we currently have, the Tren Maya seems to be a divisive megaproject.  That's why we want to know your opinion.

What do you think about the Tren Maya? Let us  know in the comments below. If you want to see more about another proposed megaproject  in Mexico, you should watch our video about Mexico’s Panama Canal Rival.

Thank you for  watching, and we will see you in the next video!