MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday (Nov. 7) announced the start of the country’s latest major rail project, the Gulf of Mexico Train, a planned passenger route linking Nuevo Laredo at the U.S. border to the cities of Saltillo and Monterrey.
Groundbreaking was held Friday in Nuevo Laredo for the first phase of the project, a 137-kilometer (85-mile) single-track route to Arroyo El Sauz. That segment, the first of five, will require the construction of 52 bridges and 42 grade crossings, according a government press release. The new pasenger line will be built next to an existing freight line. The federal ministry of infrastructure, communications and transportation, SICT, says 71% of the right-of-way has already been cleared, and contracts have been put out to bid, according to a BNamericas report.
The full Nuevo Laredo-Saltillo route will cover 396 kilometers (246 miles) with operating speeds of 160 to 200 kilometers per hour (99-124 mph). The government projects the complete Saltillo-Nuevo Laredo route will carry 7.5 million passengers annually.
It is one of four projects for which the Mexican government budgeted funds to begin construction this year [see “Mexico budgets $7.8 billion …,” Trains.com, Dec. 3, 2024]. Work began earlier on the other routes, part of a plan by Sheinbaum to have 3,000 kilometers of new passenger lines by the end of her six-year term.
