Mexico rail group “surprised” at capacity concerns raised by U.S. grain shippers

MEXICO CITY — Pushing back against criticism from American agricultural exporters, the Mexican Railway Association insists that the country’s railroads have the capacity to handle growing cross-border trade with the United States.

A coalition of American agricultural shippers told to federal regulators last month that capacity problems — not surges of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. — are the main culprit for congestion on Ferromex that began late last year.

The shippers said that Ferromex has been rationing capacity and giving grain trains the lowest priority, which has increased transit times as unit trains take longer to cycle between U.S. origins and destinations in Mexico.

“On behalf of the Mexican Railway Association (Asociación Mexicana de Ferrocarriles AMF), the organization that integrates the railway sector in our country, we want to express our surprise at the communication sent on July 31 to various U.S. authorities regarding the movement of grain in our country,” Iker de Luisa, director general of AMF, wrote in an Aug. 7 letter to the agricultural shipper groups and U.S. officials, including Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, and Surface Transportation Board Chairman Robert E. Primus.

“We would like to clarify that Mexican railroads have sufficient capacity to handle the import of grains from the USA to Mexico, as we have done for the last 27 years, with efficiency and competitiveness,” de Luisa wrote. “It is worth mentioning that there have been major service disruptions in parts of Mexico due to operations to bring down migrants at the request of U.S. and Mexican authorities. The railroad sector has always invested and worked on the development of infrastructure and capacity to ensure the best service experience possible.”

In the first six months of this year, rail shipments of grain to Mexico were running 37% above the five-year average volume measured by tonnage, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said this month.

At the Eagle Pass border crossing, the average number of northbound trains per month increased by 19% during the first half of 2024 compared to the last six months of 2023, according to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which tracks only inbound shipments entering the U.S.

Assuming an equal number of southbound trains, the BTS data translates into Eagle Pass handling a total of 19 trains per day on average in the first half of 2024, compared to 16 per day in the last six months of 2023.

BNSF Railway has said that migrant surges and related temporary border closures last year created a traffic logjam on Ferromex. BNSF and Union Pacific, which interchange with Ferromex at the Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, gateways, have said that Ferromex operations have improved.

But BNSF is still working closely with Ferromex to stage southbound traffic to take advantage of interchange windows at the border and using permits and embargoes to manage volumes.

Ferromex has issued a dozen congestion-related embargoes this year, according to the Association of American Railroads Railinc database. Among them: A June 16 embargo that remains in force and includes grain, cotton, and other commodities bound to more than 20 destinations on the railroad. Shipments to those destinations can move under a permit system.

BNSF and UP officials have said they believe Ferromex has the capacity to handle current traffic levels. A Ferromex representative did not respond to a Trains News Wire email seeking comment.