MEXICO: National Infrastructure Fund Fonadin has been awarded a concession to operate and maintain the 57·7 km Tren Interurbano railway between Mexico City and Toluca, which is still under construction.
Fonadin is a subsidiary of the National Bank of Public Works & Services, Banobras. Under the agreement signed by Transport Minister Jorge Arganis Díaz-Leal and Banobras Deputy Director-General Carlos Mier y Terán Ordiales, the fund will be responsible for operation of the completed railway until February 8 2058. It also has an option to apply for an extension to the concession, ‘based on the corresponding legal and regulatory terms’.
Tren Interurbano is being developed by the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications & Transport under a project launched in 2012; the line was originally expected to open in 2018.
In awarding the concession, SITC has undertaken to continue with construction of the infrastructure and fitting out of the E&M systems until the railway is ready for commercial operation; it will then hand over the line ‘in good condition’, with the trains ‘operating efficiently and safely’.
Now expected to open in 2024, the double-track electrified railway will start from an interchange with the Mexico City subway network at Observatorio and run west to Zinacantepec in the Toluca Valley metropolitan area, serving five intermediate stations.
Electrical and mechanical systems, including ETCS Level 2 signalling and the rolling stock are being supplied by a CAF-led consortium including Isolux-Corsán, AZVI and Thales under a €690m contract awarded in 2014. The first of the 30 five-car EMUs built by CAF was delivered in January 2017 and began test running later that year on a 7 km section at the western end of the route.
- Read more about the Tren Interurbano project in the September 2017 issue of Railway Gazette Internationalmagazine, available to subscribers in the digital archive.
