CANCÚN, Mexico — The launch of Mexico’s tourist-oriented Maya Train on the Yucatán Peninsula continues to run into problems, the latest being that the last portion of the looping 950-mile route will not be complete by the end of February, as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had previously said.
López Obrador — the project’s primary backer — had hoped on Feb. 29 to inaugurate the remaining portion, from Cancun along the Caribbean coast, then inland to Escárcega, where it meets the Cancún-Palenque line placed in service Jan. 1. Instead, the news site El Economista reports, he plans on that date mark the opening of a 43.3-kilometer (26.9-mile) segment from Cancún to Playa del Carmen. After that date, the government cannot mark the opening of new projects until after Mexico’s presidential election in July.
Asked when the project would be complete, El Economista reports López Obrador said, “in two more months or three months, just because we will no longer be able to inaugurate it.” After the segment to Playa del Carmen opens, the areas still to be completed include the portion immediately to the south — the most challenging, the news site reports, involving 25.6 kilometers of embankment and 42.1 kilometers of elevated viaduct. This area also includes extensive caves along the right-of-way, some of which have reportedly been damaged by the rail construction. And the two segments that will not have any service as of that date, which cover some 509 kilometers (316 miles), do not yet have access roads or ballast, and embankments for the track have yet to be started in some areas.
López Obrador has characterized operations to date as a “soft launch,” and early operations have underlined the rush to begin service before work was complete. No intermediate stations were ready when the first segment open, and only one track was in service on a planned double-track route, requiring long delays for trains to meet [see “Long delays, late trains mark start …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 17, 2023]. There have also been equipment failures and problems in ticket booking that led to a suspension of sales last week [see “Maya Train ticket sales suspended,” News Wire, Jan. 24, 2024]. A new ticketing website has now been introduced.
The Cancun Sun newspaper notes that ticket sales remain strong despite the issues, but cautions that tourists should have “a backup plan in case the train can’t get you where you’re going.”
