Sheinbaum allocates $157 billion to works for its railway project

Alma E. Muñoz and Alonso Urrutia

La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, November 29, 2024, p. 5

With a budget of 157 billion pesos, the federal government will begin in the first half of next year the four initial sections of the six-year flagship passenger trains: Mexico-Nuevo Laredo and Mexico-Nogales, in addition to concluding the Mexico-Pachuca , reported President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo.

The Felipe Ángeles Group of Engineers, of the Secretariat of National Defense (Defense), will be in charge of the AIFA-Pachuca and Mexico-Querétaro sections; Meanwhile, the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) will tender works for the Querétaro-Irapuato and Saltillo-Nuevo Laredo sections.

So far there is 70 percent progress in defining the preliminary outline, and it is estimated that by the end of the year there will be optimal railway trackaccording to General Ricardo Vallejo Suárez, commander of the military group.

Andrés Lajous, head of the Rail Transport Regulatory Agency, reported that for the first half of 2025, the tender for the initial fleet of trains that will be operating will also be launched, and additionally, work will begin to be carried out for the Mayan Train for cargo and tracks. related to the Interoceanic railway.

In the morning of the town, the head of Defense, General Ricardo Trevilla, explained that the railway works will be carried out in four phases throughout the six-year term.

Regarding the Mayan cargo train, he indicated that it includes 10 complexes made up of five intermodal terminals, four operations yards and a fuel dispatch spur, distributed in the main cities of the more than 1,500 kilometers of railway tracks.

The president rejected that this service has problems. On the contrary, he maintained, The Mayan Train is a success and is working very well. He announced that the commercial opening from Palenque to Chetumal will be in December and mentioned that throughout next year the missing passenger cars will arrive.

Vallejo Suárez explained that the first phase of construction of the railways involves almost 800 kilometers, and calculated that the first package It will represent 70 thousand direct jobs and 140 thousand indirect jobs.

In the case of AIFA-Pachuca, he mentioned that it will be an extension of 55 kilometers of passenger service track that departs from Lechería, with electric trains, and formal heavy construction work will begin between the end of March and the beginning of April.

The limit for these works is one year and six months, while the Mexico-Querétaro section, which will begin in March-April, will be executed in two years and six months. Meanwhile, in the case of the Mayan cargo train, the estimate is a year and a half.

He added that simultaneously military engineers maintain roads affected by the construction of that train in Campeche, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Veracruz. They are currently working on 17 sections of toll-free federal highways, where they register 15 percent progress, and 8 percent progress on 181 rural roads.

Jesús Esteva, head of the SICT, reported that in the first month of operation of the pothole, more than 2 thousand kilometers of the 43 thousand of the affected federal toll-free network have been intervened.