Railway project
Introduction
The National Railway Program, also known as National Railway Industry and Infrastructure Plan,[1][2] is a set of project plans focused on Mexican railways, included in the National Development Plans "National Development Plan (Mexico)"),[3]of the federal executive administrations, [4] state administrations and their corresponding legislative frameworks. It has a growth window towards 2050.[5] It includes investment projects by companies with concessions for the use of railways in Mexico.
These plans consist of the rehabilitation of existing infrastructure, the use of concessions, the construction of new railways and the acquisition or manufacture of trains for freight, passenger and tourist services.[6].
History
Background
Prior to 2018, Mexico's national railway network consisted of 26,914 km of tracks, distributed among various concessions and assignments to private companies such as parastatals, according to the Railway Transport Regulatory Agency (ARTF). Among those that were in operation for cargo transportation:.
While for passenger transportation, the following companies were part:.
To this railway network, the construction of 3 passenger train routes, the Mexico-Querétaro high-speed train, the Mexico-Toluca interurban train and the Mérida-Punta Venado train, were added as proposals by President Enrique Peña Nieto's federal executive. Of these three routes, only the Interurban Train was carried out, while the others were canceled due to suspicions of corruption during the tender with the Chinese conglomerate CRCC [8] and due to budget cuts by the federal government.[9].
Other projects that were no longer contemplated by the federal executive were taken up and promoted by state administrations. There is the case of the Apizaco-Tlaxcala-Puebla-Cholula-Mexico Train whose administration and construction were carried out by the Government of Puebla as the Puebla-Cholula tourist train,[10][11] which failed to remain in operation due to high maintenance costs in 2023.[12] In the period of Peña Nieto and Miguel Ángel Mancera, several expansions to the Metro of the City of Mexico;[13] including line 4 in 2014,[14] line 9 and line A in 2016.[15].