MEXICO CITY (AP) — The president’s pet rail project Andrés Manuel López Obrador could end up costing up to $30 billion, is only half finished as he approaches the final two months of his term, and has caused major damage to the environment.
But the most damning judgment about the Maya Train tourist line, which runs around the Yucatan Peninsula, is the ridership numbers on about half of the railway that is now open: Only about 1,200 people a day use the train, according to data. from the government. released Monday.
Most only walk in short sections between the city of Mérida and Cancún, or the neighboring city of Campeche. The great hope of paying off the enormous cost of the train was that tourists would use it to depart the resort of Cancún and explore the entire 1,500-kilometer route to visit the Mayan archaeological sites that dot the peninsula.
But a round-trip route from Cancun to the well-known Mayan temple complex of Palenque drew only about 100 passengers a day each way in the first six months of operation. This is a volume that one or two buses a day could handle.
The government had originally promised that the train would transport between 22,000 and 37,000 people per day. Current ridership is around 3-5% of that, with three of the four most popular stations – Cancún, Mérida, Palenque and Campeche – already in service.
It is certain that the railway line the very busy corridor connecting Cancún with the resorts of Playa del Carmen and Tulum – an area known as Riviera Maya – is not yet completed and only 17 trains are operating; three times more may eventually be added.
But critics say there is little hope that the Cancún-Tulum line will make the project profitable, because doesn’t run particularly close any of the tourist cities it was supposed to serve.
The Cancún-Tulum railway was originally supposed to run on an elevated line over the coastal highway, where most of the hotels are located. But facing technical difficulties, the government changed the route, opening a 110-kilometer strip through the jungle and moving the tracks about 7 kilometers inland.
So instead of taking one of the minibuses that constantly run along the coastal highway, tourists or resort workers would have to take a taxi to the train station, wait for one of the few daily trains, and then take another taxi to the resorts. once they arrive at their destination.
“The futility of this project was predictable,” said José “Pepe” Urbina, a local diver who opposes the train because its steel pilings damaged the caves he explored for decades. “In reality, the train doesn’t go anywhere you couldn’t get to by highway before.”
“These are railway lines that do not provide any useful service to workers, to students, for any daily use,” said Urbina.
One thing the rail project created was jobs: Manuel Merino, governor of the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, said the Maya Train created 20,000 direct or indirect jobs in his state and reduced the unemployment rate by 40 percent.
“This truly makes it an engine for the development of the south,” a historically poorer and underdeveloped part of Mexico, Merino said. But most of those jobs will disappear once construction is complete, and federal officials are also looking for ways to try to make the railroad pay for itself.
Authorities have suggested that freight trains could also run on the tracks, but there is little industry in the region and therefore demand for freight is limited.
It is unclear whether the government ever thought the railroad would be profitable. López Obrador had already decided to build it before feasibility studies were carried out. According to a 2019 government study, the railroad would cost $8.5 billion and the estimated benefits would be about $10.5 billion.
But these “estimated benefits” always included many intangible aspects, such as reduced highway traffic, faster travel, or increased tourism revenue, things that either did not happen or were not related to the train.
Moody’s Analytics director Alfredo Coutiño noted that cost overruns are common in such projects.
“As expected, the Maya Train project was not completed as planned and the cost was much higher than the original budget,” Coutiño wrote.
“The question that remains to be resolved is whether this project will be profitable in the medium term, when it is expected to be fully functional, operating at full capacity and managed as a government concern and not as a private company.”
