By Emilio Godoy
MERIDA, Mexico, Dec 23 2024 – When he promoted the Maya Train (TM) in 2019, then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who ruled Mexico between 2018 and October this year, stated that the railway line would be an engine of development for the southeastern Yucatan peninsula.
The three states of the peninsula – Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatan – were offered spaces for craftspeople and ecotourism in the stations, as well as the transfer of thousands of tourists, the promotion of alternative tourism and the creation of jobs.
But one year after three of the five established routes began operating, there is little evidence of the promised benefits.
It is true that more international tourists have arrived at airports in Merida, the capital of the southeastern state of Yucatan, or tourist destinations such as Cozumel in neighbouring Quintana Roo, between January and September, compared to the same period in 2023.
However, in Cancun, the peninsula’s tourist hotspot, with one station, those arrivals fell 1.5%, making it difficult for experts to attribute the higher overall tourist arrivals to the TM.
Between December 2023 and last August, the TM carried 340,622 passengers, at a rate of 1,425 per day, according to official figures. Cancun, Merida, Playa del Carmen, Valladolid and Palenque, which has an archaeological site, account for 80% of the passengers.
Mayan craftsperson Alicia Pech does not know the railway, says she has no money to travel, that more people have not arrived and that sales are low.
The train, intended for tourists, curious users and the local population, among whom it arouses little enthusiasm, is empty at the larger stations, Merida or Cancun, and fares are low at the smaller ones.
As in other stations, Maxcanu, part of section 3 that runs between Calkini (Campeche) and Izamal (Yucatan) has eight empty shops with signs such as ‘Food’, ‘Community Tourism’ and ‘Mayan Handicrafts’.
The same thing happens in Valladolid, part of section 4 that connects Izamal with Cancun, and in the Merida-Teya station, also on route 3, there are two food shops, one that offers TM souvenirs, a car rental place, and another one that advertises a future bakery.
José Rodríguez, originally from Cancn, was disappointed because the difference in cost compared to land transport is low and because of a one-hour delay he had on his commute to Merida.
Of the 34 planned stations, only 26 are operating, as Sedena is still tending the last two sections between Felipe Carrillo Puerto, in Quintana Roo, and Centenario, in Campeche.
To increase revenues and minimise losses, President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office on 1 October, plans to expand it to Puerto Progreso, on the Yucatan coast north of Merida, to move cargo.
The Mexican government has known since 2022 that the mega-project would increase the budget. The Cost-Benefit Analysis Update, prepared that year by a private Mexican consulting firm, concluded that the cost would go from two to four times its original cost.
But the TM will continue to consume money, as the 2025 budget proposal includes a budget of US$2,173 million, added to the delay of the project and a total cost overrun that already exceeds US$15 billion.