Sheinbaum prioritizing 3 new lines costing US$27bn in Mexican rail plan

Just days before she is due to present her national infrastructure plan, Mexican president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum revealed more details of the passenger rail projects she wants her government to build, with three of them tagged as priorities and estimated to cost US$26.6bn. 

One will be a 1,143km rail line between Mexico City and Nuevo Laredo in Tamaulipas state, on the border with the US, Sheinbaum said at a press conference. 

Earlier this week, she said that her administration will aim to kick off the bidding process for this line before the end of the year – something which industry representatives like the Mexican construction chamber (CMIC) is following closely, as its president, Luis Méndez Jaled, has warned of the dangers of rushing works without proper planning. 

Another project that Sheinbaum has listed as a priority in her infrastructure plan is a 580km rail line linking Mexico City, Querétaro and Guadalajara, while the third will link Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) in Mexico state to Pachuca in Hidalgo state via a 150km line. 

The construction of the Mexico City-Nuevo Laredo and Mexico City-Querétaro-Guadalajara systems would take between four and five years, Sheinbaum said. She added that her team is already looking at right of way issues, which the passenger rail lines will share with freight transportation concessionaires. 

“In the case of passenger trains, in time we will establish dialogue with companies currently holding the concessions, but if they don’t participate, our objective is to have trains similar to the Maya train but heading to the north,” she said. “They will retain their freight concessions but the idea is to build passenger trains on the same rights of way.”

Previously, Sheinbaum said that the rail projects included in the national infrastructure plan will be built under a mixed scheme, with half built by the army – like Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration has done – and half by private companies. 

“The idea is to have a similar scheme to that of the Maya train, where military engineers participate as well as private companies,” she said. 

Sheinbaum also presented Jesús Esteva, the current Mexico City minister of public works and services, as her pick for federal infrastructure, communications and transport minister.