Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Wednesday, October 9th, a public investment of 150 billion pesos in 2025 to begin the construction of 3,000 kilometers of passenger trains during her mandate after a new constitutional reform.
The president celebrated the unanimous approval on Tuesday in the Chamber of Deputies of an initiative sent by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) so that the State can develop passenger railways on railroads even if they are concessioned to private freight transport companies.
Sheinbaum argued that in the contracts that previous governments made with private companies for the concession of the railroads, there was already a clause that specified that, in the case of passengers, if the private company did not develop it, the State could take advantage of it and there could be public companies.
The president asserted that “this will allow the possibility of using passenger transport, or as was done with the Mayan Train,” with more than 1,500 kilometers in the southeast of Mexico under the López Obrador government, “making new tracks for a new train.”
“This is very important because, at the same time that the concession for railroad freight transport is maintained, the Constitution already openly and allows that the passenger train can operate on those same tracks,” Claudia Sheinbaum concluded.
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