Criticism of the Mayan Train contrasts with the consensus on the return of passenger trains to Mexico

In Mexico there has been a lot of talk about trains in recent times, which is still curious because in this country there is no such means of transportation for travelers, only goods move all over the map towards trade with the north, United States. United, and with the south, in search of Guatemala. Two circumstances have led, however, to the train being mentioned more than ever: the most ambitious work of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mayan Train, which crosses the Mexican southeast, one of the most beautiful areas on the planet, jungle, historical and dotted with the famous cenotes, unique in the world. And two: that the president, in the last stretch of his mandate, has decided to recover passenger travel by rail. The matter does not fall from the president's mouth in his morning conferences. This Thursday, López Obrador traveled to Cancún to inaugurate the section that connects that city with Playa del Carmen. The Mayan Train route is still incomplete, despite the fact that everything was planned to be inaugurated before March 1, when the electoral campaign begins and these events are prohibited. So section 5 south, which extends from Playa del Carmen to Tulum, section 6, which goes from there to Chetumal, and section 7, where the route closes in Escárcega, will have to wait a few months. The government's intention, which put the works in the hands of the Army to avoid cost overruns and delays in the project, will not be possible yet. The laying of the tracks has gone through an entire six-year period of replicas and counter-replicas between environmentalists and the president. Some warned that the route would enter lands of enormous ecological value that would be seriously affected. López Obrador, including this Thursday, counterattacked without restraint, sending the “pseudo-environmentalists” to fry asparagus. But those who warned that the project would run into severe problems when crossing these sections that are still unfinished, were right, proof of this. It is the delay in the works due to geological problems of a valuable karst subsoil flooded with crystalline waters that is not making things easier. The president makes a virtue of necessity: “It is the most important work in the world,” he said this Thursday, dressed in a white guayabera in Cancún. And he has reported that up to 90 kilometers of the railway lines are flown above the ground so as not to interfere with the passage of animals. The fauna of the area is another of the jewels to conserve. In short, the matter has not gone at the speed expected in the National Palace or with the respect for nature that the activists demanded, but everything will be concluded before the six-year term ends. Nor does the train reach high speed, for now: 140 kilometers at the busiest moment of the trip, the president boasted. Since the bad cholesterol is compensated for by the good, the other railway project of the six-year term does not pose problems, neither environmental nor political. The return of passenger trains to Mexico, privatized during the time of Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) and intended solely for freight, is welcomed in every corner of Congress. The country, which extends over 1.9 million square kilometers, is subject to expensive and tiring plane trips or to eternal travel on roads that are not always safe. López Obrador explained to the businessmen who operate these railways that wagons with passengers would pass through them. It is not about expropriation, he often reminds them, but about “making use of the right so that all that infrastructure is used for the benefit of the people.” And when someone has intervened, he has brought out the Army to monitor his project, as he did in May of last year in the face of resistance from billionaire Germán Larrea, one of those who took over Zedillo's railway concessions. In those days of May there was a strong clash between the president and the copper king, who amasses the second fortune in the country. Today things are going more smoothly. Larrea has accepted the government offer to operate the tracks with passenger trains. He is interested in several of the proposed sections, among others the one that goes from Mexico City to Nogales passing through Querétaro and Guadalajara. Many dream of traveling to Guadalajara, one of the largest cities in the country, by train. And to Monterrey, and to the beach. 18,000 kilometers of railway tracks are now awaiting feasibility studies by big businessmen. If they do not enter the business, López Obrador will impose his recurring plan b: the Army will be the concessionaire. The multinational Canadian Pacific Kansas City has also been interested in operating a couple of routes, but the businessmen are agitating the negotiation in search of government support. The president of the railway in Mexico, Oscar del Cueto Cuevas, believes that passenger routes are not profitable and should be subsidized with public money; On the other hand, he recognizes that with certain adaptations “it is not complicated” to move people along freight routes. The Canadian is only waiting for concessions because it has been thinking about this issue for some time. Train time, then, in Mexico. Already entering the electoral campaign for the presidential elections on June 2, the official candidacy has promised to continue with the railway plans initiated by the president. And in the opposition no voices against have been heard. Entrepreneurs are involved, the difference will be made by the relationships with them and the aid they are given or denied. Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS México newsletter and receive all the key information on current events in this country