CANCÚN, Mexico — A third section of Mexico’s tourist-focused Maya Train, a 68-kilometer (42-mile) segment between Cancún and Playa del Carmen, was inaugurated Thursday, Feb. 29, with a trip including President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, local officials, and media members. It was the final portion of the project to be launched before a March 1 prohibition on the opening of new government projects ahead of Mexico’s July presidential election.
The English-language Mexico News Daily reports López Obrador called the rail line “the most important public works project in the world” at ceremonies marking the opening of the latest portion of the looping 950-mile line on the Yucatán Peninsula. The Mexican president had originally said the entire route would be completed by Feb. 29, but admitted last month that the remaining segment between Playa del Carmen and Escárcega, where the line joins the already-opened Cancún-Plaenque route, will not be finished for “two or three months” [see “Maya Train will not meet Feb. 29 target …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 29, 2024]. And that was before a court order halted construction on a 64-kilometer (40-mile) section between Playa del Carmen and Tulum, citing environmental issues.
Environmental concerns have been raised throughout the Maya Train project, with a number of court orders overridden because of a presidential order that classified the construction as a matter of national security. The latest court order concerns concrete and steel piles to support the rail line that have been driven into caverns along the route and their potential impact on the local aquifer; La Jornada Maya reports that López Obrador confirmed at a press conference prior to Thursday’s inaugural trip that such work had been done, but “no protection has been violated. … There is special protection on the columns,” he said. “They are covered [with concrete[ so that they do not damage.”
La Jornada Maya also reports 221 people were on the inaugural trip, which departed Cancún shortly before noon, made a stop of about an hour at the intermediate station at Puerto Morales, and arrived at Playa del Carmen at 1:55 p.m. Train speeds were 80 to 90 kph, or 50 to 56 mph.
