Rail transport in Mexico
This article needs to be updated.(January 2024) |
History
Construction
Mexico's rail history began in 1837, with the granting of a concession for a railroad to be built between Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico, and Mexico City. However, no railroad was built under that concession.
In 1857, Don Antonio Escandón secured the right to build a line from the port of Veracruz to Mexico City and on to the
President Lerdo and his successor Porfirio Díaz encouraged further rail development through generous concessions that included government subsidies for construction. At the beginning of his first term Díaz inherited 398 miles (640.5 km) of railroads consisting almost exclusively of the British-owned Mexican Railway.[1] By the end of his second term in 1910, Mexico boasted 15,360 miles (24,720 km) of in-service track, mostly built by American, British and French investors.[2]
From a small start, the railway network expanded significantly, linking many parts of the country previously isolated. The
Growing nationalistic fervor in Mexico led the Díaz administration to bring the bulk of the nation's railroads under national control through a plan drafted by his Minister of Finance, José Yves Limantour. The plan, implemented in 1909, created a new government corporation, Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (FNM), which would exercise control of the main trunk rail lines through a majority of share ownership.
Nationalization
The rail system deteriorated greatly from neglect during the period of the Mexican Revolution. Following the Revolution, the entirety of the Mexican rail system was nationalized between 1929 and 1937. In 1987 the government merged its five regional railroads into FNM. During the later period of national ownership, FNM suffered significant financial difficulties, running an operating deficit of $552 million (37 percent of its operating budget) in 1991. Competition from trucking and shipping decreased railroad's share of the total freight market to about 9 percent, or about half of rail's share a decade earlier.
Privatization
In 1995, the Mexican government announced that the FNM would be privatized and divided into four main systems. As part of the restructuring for privatization, FNM suspended passenger rail service in 1997.
In 1996,
The Northwest Railroad concession, connecting Mexico City and
There were two southern concessions, merged in 2000 to form
The three major Mexican railroads jointly own
Revival of passenger service
In 2006, the
President
A consortium of
In September 2018, President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced a US$7.4 billion plan to build a tourist and freight railway on the Yucatán Peninsula. The project, named the Tren Maya, began construction in 2020 and will connect Palenque to Cancún, but remains controversial with environmentalists and indigenous rights activists.[13][14] The new service debuted in 2023 and marked yet another chapter in the intercity revival.
Railways
The major Class I freight railroads in Mexico include:
- Ferromex (FXE)
- CPKC
Short line railroads include:
- Baja California Railroad (BJRR)
- Ferrocarriles Chiapas-Mayab (FCCM)
- Ferrocarril y Terminal del Valle de México(Ferrovalle)
- Ferrosur (FSRR)
- Línea Coahuila Durango (LFCD)
- Tren Interoceánico
Passenger rail lines include:
- Chihuahua al Pacífico, a tourist train running through the Copper Canyon.
- .
- Tren Suburbano (commuter rail system in the Mexico City metro area. Under construction, will reach the Felipe Ángeles International Airport in 2024[15])
- El Insurgente (commuter rail system with 4 initial stations and 3 more opening in May 2024)
- Tren Maya, a passenger service on the Yucatán Peninsula with top speeds of up to 99 miles per hour (159 km/h).
- Line Z, a passenger on the Tren Interoceánico. Passenger service uses ex-Amtrak Amfleets, and ex-British Rail InterCity 125s.[16]
Mass transit
Urban rail transit systems in Mexico include four light rail or rapid transit systems: The
Expansion
In January 2022, the Mexican Secretary of communications and transport approved a 180 Kilometer rail expansion in the Durango-Mazatlan corridor. It has an estimated cost of 1.2 billion dollars to revive and expand the abandoned corridor under a private-public partnership with the company Caxxor Group, as part of the USMCA agreement.[18][19][20][21]
Museums
There are several rail museums in Mexico including the Railway Museum in
Railway links with adjacent countries
- standard gauge
- )
See also
- List of Mexican railroads
- List of street railways in Mexico (all-time, historical list)
- Transportation in Mexico
References
- ISBN 0-521-29173-9.
- ^ Fred Wilbur Powell, the Railroads of Mexico, 1921
- ^ Coatsworth, John H. Growth Against Development: The Economic Impact of Railroads in Porfirian Mexico. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University 1981.
- ^ Tenenbaum, Barbara A. and James N. McElveen, "From speculative to substantive boom: the British in Mexico, 1821–1911." in Oliver Marshall, ed. English speaking communities in Latin America (Macmillan, 2000): 51–79, at p 69.
- ^ "A record half". Railway Gazette International. London. September 9, 2010. Retrieved October 12, 2010.
- ^ "Mexican Tribunal OKs Grupo Mexico Railroad merger". Reuters. March 28, 2011. Archived from the original on April 1, 2011.
- ^ a b c Hawley, Chris (January 6, 2006). "Mexico reviving travel by train". Arizona Republic. Phoenix.
- ^ a b "Systra : Project for a Mexico City - Guadalajara High Speed Line. Rail transport engineering, public transport engineering". Archived from the original on May 1, 2011. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
- ^ "Slim to invest in Santa Cruz" (Press release). Corporate Mexico. The America's Intelligence Wire. January 21, 2005.
- ^ O‘Boyle & Graham, Michael & Dave (November 7, 2014). "Mexico scraps $3.75 bln China rail deal ahead of state visit". Reuters.
- ^ "Mexico to pay China rail firm for cancelling project". BBC. May 22, 2015.
- ^ Rogers, David (July 13, 2023). "Mexico revives Querétaro high-speed railway nine years after cancelling it". Global Construction Review. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
- CityLab. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
- ^ Varillas, Adriana (November 23, 2018). "Everything you need to know about the Mayan Train project". El Universal. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
- ^ "Tren al AIFA estará listo el primer trimestre de 2024". Mexico City government. July 29, 2023.
- ^ "Mexico launches Interoceanic Train service". Trains. December 23, 2023. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
- ^ "Puebla tram-train inaugurated". Metro Report International. January 25, 2017. Retrieved December 11, 2017.
- ^ "Tren de durango a mazatlan/ mil millones de dolares". El Monitor de parral. Archived from the original on January 2, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- ^ "Dan aval a proyecto de tren Durango - Mazatlan". El Siglo De Durango. December 30, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- ^ "En Mazatlán comenzará a construirse un nuevo tren en septiembre". Obras por Expansion. Grupo Expansion. May 20, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- ^ "Canadian construction firm picked for $1B Mexico-Canada rail link project". Freight Waves. April 7, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- ^ "Railroad Museum, Jesus Garcia Corona". www.mexicoescultura.com.
- ^ Gorbman, Beryl (February 24, 2010). "Trains and The Merida Railway Museum". Archived from the original on August 17, 2011. Retrieved May 10, 2011.
- ISSN 0022-5266. Archived from the originalon August 13, 2019. Retrieved May 11, 2011.
- ^ "Railway between Guatemala and Mexico, connectivity across Puerto Chiapas". www.puertochiapas.com.mx.
Further reading
- Coatsworth, John H. "Indispensable railroads in a backward economy: the case of Mexico." Journal of Economic History 39.04 (1979) pp: 939–960. in JSTOR
- Coatsworth, John. "Railroads, landholding, and agrarian protest in the early porfiriato." Hispanic American Historical Review (1974) pp: 48–71. in JSTOR
- Knapp, Frank A. "Precursors of American investment in Mexican railroads." Pacific Historical Review (1952): 43–64. in JSTOR
- Lewis, Daniel. Iron Horse Imperialism: The Southern Pacific of Mexico, 1880–1950 (University of Arizona Press, 2007)
- Matthews, Michael. The Civilizing Machine: A Cultural History of Mexican Railroads, 1876–1910 (2014) excerpt
- Miller, Richard Ulric. "American railroad unions and the national railways of Mexico: An exercise in nineteenth‐century proletarian manifest destiny," Labor History 15.2 (1974) pp: 239–260.
- Powell, Fred Wilbur. The Railroads of Mexico (1921)
- Van Hoy, Teresa. A social history of Mexico's railroads: peons, prisoners, and priests (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008)
- Donovan, Frank and Kerr, John Leeds. Destination Topolobampo: The Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway (Golden West Books, 1968)
External links
- The Mexican Railways
- History of Mexico's Railroads Archived July 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- The Railroads of Mexico by Fred Wilbur Powell on Google Books
- Ferrocarril Coahuila Durango
- Ferromex
- Ferrosur
- Kansas City Southern
- Ferrocarril Y Terminal Del Valle De Mexico
- Mexican government: Secretary of Communication & Transport
- Mexico Infrastructure and Rail Projects
- Union Pacific Railroad Company
- Kansas City Southern Railway Company
- Pictures of restored(non-operational) train station in Durango, Mexico