Outgoing Mexican president says successor will build passenger train lines to U.S. border cities

SEATTLE - Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Thursday that his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, will expand the country's passenger rail system to facilitate travel from Mexico City to cities bordering the United States, as well as connecting the capital to other large cities such as Guadalajara.

In a press conference on July 10, Sheinbaum revealed plans to build three new passenger lines, including one from Mexico City to Nuevo Laredo, which borders with the American city of Laredo. The line will have an extension of about 680 miles, approximately costing $22 billion.

Sheinbaum is also planning a train line from the capital to Guadalajara for another $3 billion, and said that this route could also be extended all the way to border cities like Nogales. The third suggested line would connect inhabitants of Hidalgo and the Mexico City metropolitan area to the newly-inaugurated Felipe Ángeles airport.

Sheinbaum, who will take office on October 1, said that the trains would be all electric and run at speeds of up to 100 mph. Army engineers and private contractors are expected to take over the project and the time frame for its completion could take anywhere from four to five years.

During the press conference, she also revealed that López Obrador's administration is leaving two unfinished routes as part of the "Tren Maya" project: one connecting Paraíso and Dos Bocas and another one traveling to Puerto Progreso, in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Expanding the country's rail system has been a priority for López Obrador's Morena party since taking office in 2018, and it has not come at a cheap price. Originally projected to cost around $8.6 billion, López Obrador's Maya Train soared to almost $28 billion in costs. With some lines yet to be completed, Mexico's current president admitted that it would take three to four years for the train system to begin covering its operating costs.

The cost of the 950-mile line led López Obrador's administration to post a budget deficit of nearly 6% of GDP this year, leaving experts questioning how much the trains will actually be used considering the President's comments that it would take years for the project to be profitable.

One of the biggest concerns when López Obrador carried on with the Maya Train project was the ecological impact this would have in the country. Groups of environmental activists, archeologists and cave divers said the train route through the Yucatan jungle demolished fragile ecosystems that were home to threatened species like spider monkeys, jaguars and nearly 400 types of birds.

Besides the ecological damage, the train has also displaced many indigenous communities in the Southern part of Mexico. Paulina Rios, a Mexico City marine biologist, told the BBC that "not only has the train been built over cenotes, which could collapse at any time, it's also displaced many Maya communities. Mayan people have had to move from their homes, where they have lived for hundreds of generations, for a train that they will probably never be able to ride [because it's too expensive]. It doesn't make any sense," she said.