Maya Train Cancun-Puerto Morelos-Playa del Carmen Route Is Now Operating

by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 1:55 PM ET, Fri March 1, 2024

A new leg of the Maya Train is officially up and running.

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama marked the opening of Section 5 of the Maya Train yesterday with an official inauguration, according to Riviera Maya News.

During the ceremony, Lezama described the Maya Train, which is designed to connect travelers to sites and attractions throughout Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, as a “detonator of the economy with a record of investments, shared prosperity, and social justice,”

“I have said it before that the Maya Train is the train of social justice as it generates unprecedented development in tourism and investments,” Lezama said.

The governor also said more than 50 billion pesos have already been spent on related infrastructure work throughout the region. Some examples the governor mentioned included rehabilitating Colossi Boulevard, the road distributor for the Cancun International Airport, extension of Chad Moon Avenue, the Nichupte Lagoon vehicular bridge and more.

“I am really excited to be here at the opening of section 5 of the Maya Train that now runs along the paths of transformation, which marks a before and after in these first 50 years of history of the State of Quintana Roo,” the governor said, according to Riviera Maya News.

The new section of the train route amounts to about 45.6 kilometers and runs from Cancun International Airport to Puerto Morelos and then onward further to the popular tourist destination of Playa del Carmen. The train runs on double electrified tracks.

The new route will offer 10 daily departures designed to serve both locals and tourists. The train offers a capacity of 2,210 passengers per day.

The departure and return schedules include 9:00 a.m., 12:00 noon, and 3:00 p.m. from Cancun heading southward to Playa del Carmen. North from Playa del Carmen to Cancun, the train schedule is 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 4:30 p.m.

In January, officials in Mexico announced that three sections of the train route were expected to be wrapped up by late February. Once all three of those routes are operating, the train will “cross 11 municipalities of Quintana Roo and Campeche,” and include routes from the Cancun Airport to Tulum, Tulum to the Chetumal Airport and the Chetumal Airport to Escárcega, Campeche,” Maya Train officials said.

“Once finished, those three train routes will pass through 12 archaeological sites that include El Meco, Tulum, Cobá, Muyil, Xel-Há, Paamul II, Dzibanché-Kinichná, Chacchoben, Oxtankah, Ichkabal, Kohunlich and Calakmul," Maya Train officials said earlier this year.

Tickets for the train can be purchased online.