The administration led by Claudia Sheinbaum is planning an unprecedented rail expansion, with a strategy that strengthens both passenger and freight transport under a public-private partnership model.
During the morning press conference, Andrés Lajous explained that the governments of Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto promoted limited, concession-based projects, while in recent administrations the State has resumed a more active role.
According to the data presented, 65 kilometers of new track were built under Calderón, 187 under Peña Nieto, 1,736 under López Obrador, and the current administration plans to reach 2,377 kilometers.
The mayor stated that the goal could be even greater, although for now they are working with a conservative scenario that, she emphasized, maintains the construction of public trains as its central focus.
In that context, Sheinbaum contrasted the results of previous administrations and opened the debate on the most remembered works of those periods, putting on the table their scope and their public impact.
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The president alluded to projects that have defined recent administrations and emphasized that, in contrast to previous periods, there is now a more visible intention to expand the country’s strategic infrastructure.
Among the projects mentioned were the Maya Train, the Interoceanic Corridor, the Dos Bocas refinery, the AIFA (Felipe Ángeles International Airport), the Tulum airport, and the state airline, as part of the new public works discourse.
For the current phase, new projects were also mentioned, such as the Maya Train freight line, the northern rail routes, the El Insurgente service, and the connection between Mexico City and Pachuca.
Néstor Núñez López, head of the Institutional Relations and Assets Unit of the SICT (Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation), reported that 27,234,241 square meters of right-of-way have already been cleared across 2,547 properties.
This progress, he added, is key to consolidating the new rail network and allowing technical studies and physical works to advance without delays in the priority corridors defined by the federal government.
Military engineers have already worked on nearly 800 kilometers of track connected to the first four sections of this new national rail network.
These sections include the routes from Mexico City to Pachuca, Mexico City to Querétaro, Querétaro to Irapuato, and Saltillo to Nuevo Laredo, considered essential for the country’s connectivity.
Gustavo Ricardo Vallejo Suárez, commander of the Felipe Ángeles Engineering Group, specified that the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) is directly involved in the construction of two of these corridors.
Regarding the Maya Train, he explained that the four sections included in the project comprise more than 101 kilometers of internal track for freight yards.
He also noted that Sedena will continue collaborating with various federal agencies to secure rights-of-way, complete specialized studies, and open new construction sites in the coming months.
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For his part, Lajous detailed that a contract for 88,559 tons of rail is already in place for the northern rail project, of which 55 percent has been manufactured.
Some of the material is still being shipped by sea, while the rest is already in Mexico. More than 4,000 tons have been unloaded in Saltillo, and operations are expected to begin in Querétaro and Irapuato.
In addition, the federal government is moving forward with two train acquisition processes, including a package of 15 electric units that will be used for service between the AIFA (Felipe Ángeles International Airport) and the city of Pachuca.
