by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:10 AM ET, Tue July 16, 2024
Mexico’s Maya Train, a billion-dollar tourist rail project begun under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s direction, is half completed yet has yet to see the popularity or ridership that was expected.
The Maya Train came with some concerns: environmentalists warned about the rail line’s environmental damage as jungles were cut to lay down the track, and the president went ahead with the plan prior to conducting any feasibility studies.
Now, according to the Associated Press, government figures found that only 1,200 people are using the trains each day, a stark number in contrast to the expected 22,000 to 37,000 people. Cancun, Merida, Palenque and Campeche, four of the most popular stations, are already in service, and some routes, such as from Cancun to the Mayan temple complex at Palenque, only draw about 100 travelers per day each way.
The Maya Train was designed to connect the major attractions and tourist areas of the country’s Yucatan Peninsula, one of the most popular regions for travelers to visit. The entire route, when completed, spans 950 miles. It’s been opening in a phased approach since 2023, with two new routes opening in the month of March.
The project was estimated to cost $8.5 billion in 2019, with expected benefits to reach $10.5 billion. With such a high cost and low popularity, the Maya Train could eventually cost the government $30 billion in lost revenue if its popularity doesn’t improve.
Another challenge to its popularity is the lack of connection with the destinations on offer: stations are too far away from the actual destinations it stops in, making it inconvenient for daily commuters, who were expected to benefit from the routes by connecting more people with more employment opportunities.
“As was expected, the Maya Train project was not finished as planned and the cost was much higher than the original budget,” wrote Moody’s Analytics Director Alfredo Coutiño. “The question that still must be resolved is if this project will be profitable in the medium term when it is expected to be fully functional, operating at full capacity and managed as a government concern and not as a private enterprise.”
While the construction project has certainly benefited local economies by bringing more jobs to the region, once the construction ends, these benefits are also expected to wane, leaving residents wondering if the behemoth presidential project was worth the hefty price tag.
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