TAPACHULA, Mexico — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced plans to spend $1.4 billion to rehabilitate about 240 miles of rail lines in Chiapas and Oaxaxa states. The work will be part of the project to develop a rail line across the Tehuantepec Isthmus as an alternative to the Panama Canal.
In a Friday press conference, López Obrador said the work would include routes in Chiapas state and Oaxaca state, and would connect to the border with Guatemala. BNamericas reports the Mexican president said the rehabilitation would reach “from the isthmus to this [Tapachula] border … We are going to put into operation the railway from Ixtepec to the border with Guatemala.”
A route from Coatzacoalcos to Palenque will also be rehabilitated, he said, and new passenger and freight equipment will be purchased. No start time for the project was announced.
The trans-isthmus line, creating a 180-mile line connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, was originally projected to begin operations in 2023 [see “Digest: U.S., California settle …,” Trains News Wire, March 23, 2021]. But the director of the project said in January that the operations could begin this year.
“Oaxaca” is the proper spelling.
Also, wasn’t this tried in the 1980’s when Mexico planned to build a heavy-duty, high-speed, electrified line across Mexico? They bought a fleet of GE E60Cs that sat for years unused until some US industrials bought some. The rest were scrapped IIRC. They DID have a nice, new Ferrocarilles Nacionales de Mexico paint scheme, though.
I hope the presidente has thought about transload facilities near the Guatemala border since Guate has no functioning railroads.