MEXICO: The latest section of the 1 525 km Tren Maya project was inaugurated on February 29.
The 45·6 km electrified double-track Section 5 North runs from Cancún airport to the beach resort town of Playa del Carmen on the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula, with one intermediate station at Puerto Morelos.
There are trains each way between Cancún and Playa del Carmen in the early morning and evening targeted at local workers, and three pairs of trains for tourists.
The latest opening adds to the 699 km route between Cancún and Palenque where services are operating to a limited special pre-operational timetable while the introduction of the fleet of 42 Alstom X’trapolis multiple-units is ongoing. In the first 70 days of operation following the opening in December, Tren Maya carried 64 370 passengers with an occupancy rate of 84%.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said all the routes and stations on the Tren Maya network would open after the presidential elections in June.
On February 16, a federal court ordered a halt to work on Section 5 South from Playa del Carmen to Tulum, and asked the government to submit scientific and environmental studies to safeguard caves and sinkholes in the karst landscape.
