Associated Press
Sat, December 16, 2023
The inaugural train with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on board passes near Chochola, Quintana Roo State, Mexico, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. Mexico's president inaugurated a 290-mile (473-kilometer) stretch between the colonial Gulf coast city of Campeche and the Caribbean coast resort of Cancun.
(AP Photo/Martin Zetina)
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Maya Train rail project opened partially to the general public Saturday, amid hours-long delays and huge cost overruns.
Passengers waiting for the twice-daily train to leave the resort of Cancun were left waiting on the platform for about five hours before being able to board. Officials apologized for the delayed and said it was due to trains being “reconfigured.”
Some passengers napped on the floor of the concrete platform. Some — many self-declared supporters of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — cheered when the train finally appeared in Cancun.
The train running in the other direction from the Gulf coast colonial city of Campeche was also delayed for hours, because only one side of the planned double rail line is finished. Officials estimated it would take about 5 1/2 hours to travel the 290 miles (473 kilometers) from Campeche to Cancun.
Meanwhile, the cost of the project has soared from original estimates of around $8.5 billion, to as much as $28 billion.
The 950-mile line, called the Maya Train, is meant to connect beach resorts and archaeological sites. However, only about one-third of it — the 290-mile (473-kilometer) stretch that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador inaugurated with dignitaries and the press Friday — has even been partly finished.
Officials pledged the rest of the line would be ready by the end of February. But even on the part López Obrador inaugurated Friday, just a single line of a planned double-line track has been finished, meaning one train has to wait on a siding while another passes.
The stretch running between Campeche and Cancun is about one-third of the entire project and covers the least controversial portion of the route, which crosses many environmentally sensitive areas.
A first-class ticket on one of the two trains from Cancun to Merida, the most popular stop, will cost the equivalent of $68. A first-class bus covers the route in about the same time and costs about $58, with buses leaving about every half hour from the city centers, rather than remote train stations on the outskirts.
That led to questions about whether the train will ever cover its operating costs, much less its construction budget.
Mexico's army, which operates the train and built part of the railway, did not respond to a request for comment about the delays or cost overruns.
In comments Friday, López Obrador acknowledged, “Yes, things are lacking (on the train), of course,” and predicted it would take “three years, four years” for the train system to begin covering its operating costs under the best scenario.
Asked how much the construction cost of the project would be, the president said: “I don't know ... I don't have the exact figure.”
Originally projected to cost $8.6 billion, by now $22.7 billion has been assigned to the project, and Treasury Secretary Rogelio Ramírez told local media the final cost would be around $28 billion.
Unlike the remaining two-thirds of the Maya Train, the part of the line inaugurated Friday already had an old train line running over much of the route. Many of the still-unfinished parts were cut through the jungle and built over sensitive, relic-filled cave systems, drawing objections from environmentalists.
López Obrador has raced to finish the Maya Train project before he leaves office in September, rolling over the objections of ecologists, cave divers and archaeologists.
The train runs along the Caribbean coast and threatens extensive caves where some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered. Because of the region’s limestone geology, it is riddled with caves that carry most of its water.
While officials have touted the train as utilitarian transport for freight and local residents, its only real source of significant income would be tourists. However, given its frequent stops, unwieldy route and lack of feasibility studies, it is unclear how many tourists will actually want to buy tickets.
“The train won’t help residents get to work or school, and besides, it’s very expensive,” SELVAME, a coalition of groups opposing the project, said in a statement Friday. “The train runs through the jungle, filling cenotes (sinkhole lakes) and underground rivers with concrete, without any studies.”
López Obrador has tried to rush through the project by exempting it from normal permitting, public reporting and environmental impact statements, claiming it is vital to national security.
In November 2021, his administration issued a broad decree requiring all federal agencies to give automatic approval for any public works project the government deems to be “in the national interest” or to “involve national security.”
____
Mexico's flagship train inauguration masks delay, cost concerns
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Maya Train rail project opened partially to the general public Saturday, amid hours-long delays and huge cost overruns.
Passengers waiting for the twice-daily train to leave the resort of Cancun were left waiting on the platform for about five hours before being able to board. Officials apologized for the delayed and said it was due to trains being “reconfigured.”
Some passengers napped on the floor of the concrete platform. Some — many self-declared supporters of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — cheered when the train finally appeared in Cancun.
The train running in the other direction from the Gulf coast colonial city of Campeche was also delayed for hours, because only one side of the planned double rail line is finished. Officials estimated it would take about 5 1/2 hours to travel the 290 miles (473 kilometers) from Campeche to Cancun.
Meanwhile, the cost of the project has soared from original estimates of around $8.5 billion, to as much as $28 billion.
The 950-mile line, called the Maya Train, is meant to connect beach resorts and archaeological sites. However, only about one-third of it — the 290-mile (473-kilometer) stretch that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador inaugurated with dignitaries and the press Friday — has even been partly finished.
Officials pledged the rest of the line would be ready by the end of February. But even on the part López Obrador inaugurated Friday, just a single line of a planned double-line track has been finished, meaning one train has to wait on a siding while another passes.
The stretch running between Campeche and Cancun is about one-third of the entire project and covers the least controversial portion of the route, which crosses many environmentally sensitive areas.
A first-class ticket on one of the two trains from Cancun to Merida, the most popular stop, will cost the equivalent of $68. A first-class bus covers the route in about the same time and costs about $58, with buses leaving about every half hour from the city centers, rather than remote train stations on the outskirts.
That led to questions about whether the train will ever cover its operating costs, much less its construction budget.
Mexico's army, which operates the train and built part of the railway, did not respond to a request for comment about the delays or cost overruns.
In comments Friday, López Obrador acknowledged, “Yes, things are lacking (on the train), of course,” and predicted it would take “three years, four years” for the train system to begin covering its operating costs under the best scenario.
Asked how much the construction cost of the project would be, the president said: “I don't know ... I don't have the exact figure.”
Originally projected to cost $8.6 billion, by now $22.7 billion has been assigned to the project, and Treasury Secretary Rogelio Ramírez told local media the final cost would be around $28 billion.
Unlike the remaining two-thirds of the Maya Train, the part of the line inaugurated Friday already had an old train line running over much of the route. Many of the still-unfinished parts were cut through the jungle and built over sensitive, relic-filled cave systems, drawing objections from environmentalists.
López Obrador has raced to finish the Maya Train project before he leaves office in September, rolling over the objections of ecologists, cave divers and archaeologists.
The train runs along the Caribbean coast and threatens extensive caves where some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered. Because of the region’s limestone geology, it is riddled with caves that carry most of its water.
While officials have touted the train as utilitarian transport for freight and local residents, its only real source of significant income would be tourists. However, given its frequent stops, unwieldy route and lack of feasibility studies, it is unclear how many tourists will actually want to buy tickets.
“The train won’t help residents get to work or school, and besides, it’s very expensive,” SELVAME, a coalition of groups opposing the project, said in a statement Friday. “The train runs through the jungle, filling cenotes (sinkhole lakes) and underground rivers with concrete, without any studies.”
López Obrador has tried to rush through the project by exempting it from normal permitting, public reporting and environmental impact statements, claiming it is vital to national security.
In November 2021, his administration issued a broad decree requiring all federal agencies to give automatic approval for any public works project the government deems to be “in the national interest” or to “involve national security.”
____
Mexico's flagship train inauguration masks delay, cost concerns
Fri, December 15, 2023
Inauguration of the first phase of the touristic Maya Train, in Campeche
By Cassandra Garrison
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico is set to inaugurate a tourist train that is a flagship infrastructure project of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, though experts say it is still a long way from being fully operational, with the opening rushed.
"It's the most important public work in the world," Lopez Obrador said recently of the 1,554 kilometer-long (965 mile) project.
An official ceremony on Friday will launch the first section of the so-called Tren Maya, a track from the southern state of Campeche to the tourist hotspot of Cancun.
Another section from Palenque to Cancun is expected to be inaugurated by the end of December, and the remaining routes will be up and running in February, the government says.
But experts cast doubt on the timeline. The project is far from complete, according to an aide to Lopez Obrador and a person involved in the construction, who spoke on condition of anonymity. When exactly it will be is unclear, they said.
Originally projected at $7.5 billion, the Tren Maya will cost more than $28 billion, government officials have said. Tickets will range from 1,166 to 1,862 pesos ($67.45 to $107.72).
It is one of several signature Lopez Obrador works battling delays and spiraling costs. A refinery under construction in southern Mexico has yet to produce usable gasoline despite being inaugurated in 2022. A new Mexico City airport he opened over 20 months ago has yet to draw much passenger traffic.
Lopez Obrador had pledged to finish the train by the end of 2023, which he says will create jobs and boost connectivity.
Hold-ups and legal challenges have plagued its progress. Environmental activists and scientists argue the construction critically endangers a delicate below-ground ecosystem and essentially splits the jungle in half.
"In terms of safety, part of the delays in the project is precisely because of these points ... The project has been changed several times," said another expert who participated in the government's environmental impact study.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the expert told Reuters there are unfinished sections between Tulum, Xpujil and Escarcega. To conclude on time would take massive, hitherto lacking, coordination between all the project's participants, he added.
It was a mad rush to the December inauguration, he said.
Mexico's defense ministry, which is running the project, did not respond to requests for comment.
On Wednesday, a group of activists and divers entered a cave directly below the construction in Quintana Roo state in the Yucatan peninsula to highlight the train line's impact on a vital part of the local ecosystem.
It is one of hundreds of subterranean caves carved out from soft limestone bedrock by water over millions of years over which the train will pass. Underground pools, known as cenotes, are a main source of fresh water to countless communities and wildlife in the peninsula.
"We have no idea what is going to happen to our water," said activist Cristina Nolasco. "We should have done this in a sustainable way that can also guarantee the structural resilience, and we're not doing that."
($1 = 17.2857 Mexican pesos)
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; additional reporting by Dave Graham and Jose Luis Gonzalez; Editing by Sonali Paul)
Mexico's Maya Train opens, despite environmental concerns
AFP
Fri, December 15, 2023
Mexico's Mayan Train, a flagship project of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (RODRIGO OROPEZA)
Mexico's Maya Train, a flagship project of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, was set to open Friday with a promise of prosperity for one of the country's most impoverished regions, but also dogged by accusations that it has devastated the environment.
"It is a magnum opus" that was built "in record time," said Lopez Obrador in his daily morning conference before the opening ceremony, praising participation of the armed forces in the railway's development.
The left-wing leader was due to board the first run of the tourist train between the colonial city of Campeche and the Caribbean resort of Cancun, Mexico's leading tourist destination that welcomed 34 million foreign visitors between January and October, according to official figures.
The stretch of rail being inaugurated Friday is the first of seven sections that will cover a total of 1,554 kilometers (965 miles) around the Yucatan Peninsula, an area rich in flora, fauna and archaeological ruins. The others will be operational in the first quarter of 2024.
The route includes parts of the Mayan Riviera, which covers a jungle region considered the second-most important forest reserve in Latin America after the Amazon, as well as cenotes -- freshwater caves -- and underground rivers.
Activists and environmental organizations said the project caused massive damage to the region's ecosystem, dubbing it an "ecocide," and succeeded in temporarily halting work through legal appeals.
But Lopez Obrador issued a decree declaring the infrastructure works a matter of "national security" and construction resumed.
Greenpeace and other NGOs have warned that the train threatens to contaminate cenotes and underground rivers in particular.
They also point out danger of the ground collapsing due to the weight of the structure, in addition to affecting flora and fauna.
The Mexican president has called the protesters "pseudo-environmentalists" and has defended the work on several occasions, promising to plant millions of trees in the area.
Mexico's president inaugurates first part of $20 billion tourist train project on Yucatan peninsula
Associated Press
Updated Fri, December 15, 2023
Rogelio Jiménez Pons, director of Fonatur, points to a map of a planned tourist train line through the Yucatan Peninsula known as the Maya Train, during an interview in Mexico City, March 18, 2019. Mexico’s president on Dec. 15, 2023 inaugurated the first part of this project of his administration.
(AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president on Friday inaugurated the first part of the pet project of his administration, a tourist train that runs in a rough loop around the Yucatan peninsula.
The $20 billion, 950-mile line, called the Maya Train, is meant to connect beach resorts and archaeological sites. However, it is not finished yet. Officials pledged the rest of the line would be ready by the end of February. But it was clear from the unfinished earthworks and the existence of just a single lane of a planned double-lane track, even the first section has not been completed yet.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador opened a 290-mile (473-kilometer) stretch Friday between the colonial Gulf coast city of Campeche and the Caribbean coast resort of Cancun. That is about one-third of the entire project, and covers the least controversial stretch.
It will take about 5 1/2 hours to travel from Campeche to Cancun at an average speed of about 50 miles per hour (80 kph), though officials have promised the train will be capable of speeds of up to 75 mph (120 kph).
There will be two trains per day each way, with stops in the colonial city of Merida, the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza and about ten other towns. Originally, officials had planned on charging separate, lower fares for Mexicans on the line, and foreign tourists would pay a higher fare.
But the only prices listed for the first runs were differentiated only by first-class and “tourist class” tickets, on sale starting Saturday, though most are sold out.
A first-class ticket on one of the two trains from Cancun to Merida each day will cost the equivalent of $68. A first-class bus ticket on the same route costs about $58, with buses leaving about every half hour.
The first train cars to set out Friday were reserved for officials, dignitaries and the press. López Obrador called it a record-setting project that will eventually link Cancun with beach towns like Playa del Carmen and Tulum, and Mayan ruins at Calakmul and Palenque.
“There are no public works projects like this in the world,” López Obrador said. “It was also done in record time.”
Layda Sansores, the governor of Campeche state, claimed “the entire peninsula is breaking out in cries of ‘Hallelujah!’”
Unlike the remaining two-thirds of the Maya Train, the part of the line inaugurated Friday already had an old train line running over much of the route. Many of the still-unfinished parts were cut through the jungle and built over sensitive, relic-filled cave systems, drawing objections from environmentalists.
López Obrador has raced to finish the Maya Train project before he leaves office in September, rolling over the objections of ecologists, cave divers and archaeologists.
The train runs along the Caribbean coast and threatens extensive caves where some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered. Because of the region's limestone geology, it is riddled with caves that carry most of its water.
While officials have touted the train as utilitarian transport for freight and local residents, its only real source of significant income would be tourists. However, given its frequent stops, unwieldy route and lack of feasibility studies, it is unclear how many tourists will actually want to buy tickets.
“The train won't help residents get to work or school, and besides, it's very expensive,” SELVAME, a coalition of groups opposing the project, said in a statement Friday. “The train runs through the jungle, filling cenotes (sinkhole lakes) and underground rivers with concrete, without any studies.”
López Obrador has tried to rush through the Maya Train project by exempting it from normal permitting, public reporting and environmental impact statements, claiming it is vital to national security.
In November 2021, López Obrador’s government issued a broad decree requiring all federal agencies to give automatic approval for any public works project the government deems to be “in the national interest” or to “involve national security.”
The train was partly built by the Mexican army and will be run by the armed forces, to whom López Obrador has entrusted more projects than any other president in at least a century.
López Obrador is known for his fascination with trains, the armed forces and state-owned companies in general. In November, he announced he will require private rail companies that mostly carry freight to offer passenger service or else have the government schedule its own trains on their tracks.
Almost no regular passenger rail service remains in Mexico following a 1995 reform that gave concessions to two private railway companies: Mexico’s Ferromex and a subsidiary of U.S. railway Kansas City Southern.
A few tourist trains run on relatively short, unconnected routes to tourist attractions like northern Mexico’s Copper Canyon and the western tequila-producing region around Jalisco.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president on Friday inaugurated the first part of the pet project of his administration, a tourist train that runs in a rough loop around the Yucatan peninsula.
The $20 billion, 950-mile line, called the Maya Train, is meant to connect beach resorts and archaeological sites. However, it is not finished yet. Officials pledged the rest of the line would be ready by the end of February. But it was clear from the unfinished earthworks and the existence of just a single lane of a planned double-lane track, even the first section has not been completed yet.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador opened a 290-mile (473-kilometer) stretch Friday between the colonial Gulf coast city of Campeche and the Caribbean coast resort of Cancun. That is about one-third of the entire project, and covers the least controversial stretch.
It will take about 5 1/2 hours to travel from Campeche to Cancun at an average speed of about 50 miles per hour (80 kph), though officials have promised the train will be capable of speeds of up to 75 mph (120 kph).
There will be two trains per day each way, with stops in the colonial city of Merida, the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza and about ten other towns. Originally, officials had planned on charging separate, lower fares for Mexicans on the line, and foreign tourists would pay a higher fare.
But the only prices listed for the first runs were differentiated only by first-class and “tourist class” tickets, on sale starting Saturday, though most are sold out.
A first-class ticket on one of the two trains from Cancun to Merida each day will cost the equivalent of $68. A first-class bus ticket on the same route costs about $58, with buses leaving about every half hour.
The first train cars to set out Friday were reserved for officials, dignitaries and the press. López Obrador called it a record-setting project that will eventually link Cancun with beach towns like Playa del Carmen and Tulum, and Mayan ruins at Calakmul and Palenque.
“There are no public works projects like this in the world,” López Obrador said. “It was also done in record time.”
Layda Sansores, the governor of Campeche state, claimed “the entire peninsula is breaking out in cries of ‘Hallelujah!’”
Unlike the remaining two-thirds of the Maya Train, the part of the line inaugurated Friday already had an old train line running over much of the route. Many of the still-unfinished parts were cut through the jungle and built over sensitive, relic-filled cave systems, drawing objections from environmentalists.
López Obrador has raced to finish the Maya Train project before he leaves office in September, rolling over the objections of ecologists, cave divers and archaeologists.
The train runs along the Caribbean coast and threatens extensive caves where some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered. Because of the region's limestone geology, it is riddled with caves that carry most of its water.
While officials have touted the train as utilitarian transport for freight and local residents, its only real source of significant income would be tourists. However, given its frequent stops, unwieldy route and lack of feasibility studies, it is unclear how many tourists will actually want to buy tickets.
“The train won't help residents get to work or school, and besides, it's very expensive,” SELVAME, a coalition of groups opposing the project, said in a statement Friday. “The train runs through the jungle, filling cenotes (sinkhole lakes) and underground rivers with concrete, without any studies.”
López Obrador has tried to rush through the Maya Train project by exempting it from normal permitting, public reporting and environmental impact statements, claiming it is vital to national security.
In November 2021, López Obrador’s government issued a broad decree requiring all federal agencies to give automatic approval for any public works project the government deems to be “in the national interest” or to “involve national security.”
The train was partly built by the Mexican army and will be run by the armed forces, to whom López Obrador has entrusted more projects than any other president in at least a century.
López Obrador is known for his fascination with trains, the armed forces and state-owned companies in general. In November, he announced he will require private rail companies that mostly carry freight to offer passenger service or else have the government schedule its own trains on their tracks.
Almost no regular passenger rail service remains in Mexico following a 1995 reform that gave concessions to two private railway companies: Mexico’s Ferromex and a subsidiary of U.S. railway Kansas City Southern.
A few tourist trains run on relatively short, unconnected routes to tourist attractions like northern Mexico’s Copper Canyon and the western tequila-producing region around Jalisco.
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