Emir Olivares and Alonso Urrutia
The newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, August 6, 2024, p. 8
The Maya Train circuit will be complete by the first weekend of September, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced.
We will have the whole train in early September, 6, 7 and 8
he said at yesterday’s morning press conference at the National Palace.
The head of the Executive assured that They are already finished
the 1,554 kilometers of track of the railway project, although he did not clarify whether they will be inaugurated during his administration.
For his part, General Oscar David Lozano Aguila, director of the railway project, said that since the opening of the system (last December 15) to date, passenger demand has increased by 13 percent.
Presenting a report on section 4 of this system – which runs from Izamal, Yucatán, to Cancún, Quintana Roo, along 239 kilometers of electrified double track – the official indicated that the number of visitors has gradually increased.
In December, operations began with 10,851 passengers; by March, the service increased to 40,000 passengers per month and remained that way for four months.
And in July, thanks to increased services, passenger demand reached a peak of 63,764 passengers.
(in that month).
The director of the Tren Maya company, which depends on the Secretariat of National Defense, commented that in more than seven months of operation, the Tren Maya has transported almost 300 thousand people and, of that total, 30 percent have done so on section 4.
The passenger demand on section 4 during these months of operation was 89,158 people. Of these, the local population accounted for 21,582 spaces, 43,742 were national tourists and 6,253 were international tourists.
Lozano Águila explained that the nerve center from which the seven sections with 1,554 kilometers that make up the entire system will be controlled will be established in Cancún. Since this installation has not yet been completed, this operational center currently operates from Mérida.
Guadalupe Phillips Margain, general manager of ICA, the company that built section 4, said that, in addition to the 238 kilometers of electrified double track, a 194-kilometer four-lane highway was built.We built these communication routes in 36 months, a record time.
.