In parallel tours conducted along different sections, environmentalists and journalists are exposing the “great failure” of the Tren Maya because it is non-functional. Users prefer buses and vans for transportation in the region, and they accuse the railway project of excluding Mayan residents.
The project, still incomplete, championed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, it has been criticized for its lack of planning by Guillermo D’ Christy, a diver and hydrologist specializing in water quality. He is an environmentalist associated with the Sélvame del Tren collective.
Poor Conditions of Tren Maya Stations
D’ Christy described the dismal conditions of Tren Maya stations, using the Playa del Carmen station as an example:
“Today, we picked up the German television team (Deutsche Welle) that came to document the devastation caused by the so-called Tren Maya in the southern section 5, at the Playa del Carmen station. It’s incomplete, with all the stalls vacant and dirty.
“The tracks lack the electric catenaries; the trains still run on diesel. No passengers.
“At 9:46 AM, only 25 passengers arrived on the train. Just two ‘tourists’ (the reporter team). In the middle of summer and during vacation time, this is proof of the Tren Maya’s great failure.”
He added that they had planned to return on the 4 PM train but changed their minds and opted for an ADO bus back to Cancún. The bus is cheaper and goes directly to the city center, highlighting that the Tren Maya is not functional.
Tixkokob Station of Tren Maya with Deficiencies During Vacation Season
Guillermo D’ Christy’s case, where he exposes the “great failure” of the Tren Maya and provides specific examples in Playa del Carmen, is not isolated. On Wednesday, July 24th, during a visit to the area, the Diario de Yucatn newspaper confirmed several deficiencies at the Tixkokob station, where passenger numbers were also low in both directions.
The most evident issue was that, despite being a new building and during the vacation season, the elevator and escalators were out of service. Elderly individuals who attempted to use them were unable to do so. If a person in a wheelchair had been present, they would not have been able to access the train as a passenger.
Furthermore, where the train derailed on March 25th at the start of Holy Week, proves to be barely functional. It does not easily connect users to the town, as there is no transportation waiting for arriving passengers.
Motorcycle taxis handle the transportation, but there are no units waiting at the station. A list of phone numbers is posted on the wall, allowing passengers to contact the drivers. If they respond and are available, passengers must wait for transportation to reach the community, which boasts beautiful places to visit.
The fact that the Tren Maya does not directly connect with municipalities can turn a simple trip into a cumbersome journey if you’re not mentally prepared.
For instance, to travel from Mérida to Tixkokob or Cancún, you must leave your hotel or home before 7 AM because the Ie-Tram departs at 7:30 to take you to the Mérida-Teya Station. Finally, the train departs at 9:06 AM, as indicated on the ticket.
However, even upon reaching the desired station, additional time is needed to request transportation, wait for it, and ultimately arrive at your destination.
But Once You Reach the Long-Awaited Station, There’s Still More Time Needed to Request Transportation, Wait, and Finally Reach Your Destination.
Great Failure” of Tren Maya Revealed Without Mayans; Users Prefer Buses
The Tren Maya, an incomplete project championed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), has been criticized since last December by the Berlin newspaper Taz. They argue that it “speeds over the rights of indigenous peoples, descendants of the Maya. Participation, coordination of the route, consent for the use of indigenous territories… none of that exists.”
This assertion is confirmed by a report from Proceso, where journalist Octavio Martínez indicates that the residents of Villas del Sol, in the municipality of Solidaridad, Quintana Roo (located at the western end of the Riviera Maya), barely notice the Tren Maya station located there.
In this major tourist zone of the country, the federal project began operating over three months ago with passenger trains that travel semi-empty daily along the northern section 5.
Tren Maya with Low Passenger Traffic
In Villas del Sol, as in many communities across the Yucatán Peninsula, Chiapas, and Tabasco, the railway operates with low passenger traffic because it is not viable for residents due to its cost and lack of convenience.
In this locality, there is a daily influx of people seeking to reach their workplaces, located in the hotels of the Riviera Maya and Cancún.
However, the residents of Villas del Sol—with a population of 150,000, accounting for over a third of Playa del Carmen’s population—are opting for buses or vans as their means of transportation instead of the Tren Maya offered by AMLO because it is not functional.
In this area, the Playa del Carmen station was built, connecting via a 43.3-kilometer railway track to the Cancún Airport station, passing through Puerto Morelos.
This segment began operating on March 15th, after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador rode the train along the route as if it were an inaugural event. However, the construction was not yet complete, as hundreds of masons continue working on the project to this day.
Tren Maya vs. Road Transportation
Initially, the Lázaro Cárdenas del Río taxi drivers’ union—the dominant taxi organization in Playa del Carmen—had expressed their intention to establish a base at the station to serve train passengers.
To date, they have not done so due to the scarce number of passengers using the train.
Few passengers board the railcars for the trips between Playa del Carmen and Cancún during the six daily train runs between the two destinations—three outbound and three return trips. Each journey takes 50 to 60 minutes to complete.
Tren Maya: Not Functional and Lacks Direct Connections to Towns
The problem, as reported by local residents, is that instead of bringing them closer to their workplaces or tourist attractions located more than 30 kilometers away in some cases, the Tren Maya actually takes them farther away.
Additionally, time is not on its side. The railway has faced numerous operational deficiencies. In May, it was reported that the Tren Maya experiences a failure every 30 hours and often comes to a halt.
Even tourists seeking access to or from Cancún International Airport do not widely demand the Tren Maya because it does not provide direct service. Instead, they prefer road transportation.
The Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) operated train transports around 20,000 people daily. However, these passengers choose ADO buses and van-type vehicles, which directly reach the entrances of Riviera Maya hotels and, of course, Cancún International Airport.
Moreover, these vehicles provide access to countless communities—an advantage that the Tren Maya does not offer.
Tren Maya’s Deficiencies Do Not Impact ADO
Long before the project began, local transport providers worried that the Tren Maya would significantly reduce their user base.
However, according to ADO, the leading first-class bus transportation company in the region, the negative effects have been practically negligible. They continue to serve an average of 2,500 passengers daily departing from Playa del Carmen or Cancún.
“The Tren Maya competes within the same route. Just as we have vans, we also have the Tren Maya. It’s a matter of continuing to improve our services and understanding passenger preferences. In reality, everything has remained normal; there have been no changes,” says Lourdes Jiménez Rojo, Commercial Manager of ADO in the Riviera Maya.
The region’s mobility system is complemented by vans affiliated with various unions. These operators estimate that they transport around 15,000 people daily between Cancún, Playa del Carmen, and the Maya communities of Quintana Roo and Yucatán. Passengers continue to prefer this mode of transportation.
In addition to the proximity of boarding points, the economic factor comes into play: traveling by van is cheaper than taking the train.
The Tren Maya ticket price for local residents between Cancún Airport and Playa del Carmen is 74 pesos, compared to the maximum 45 pesos charged by road transport vans along the Riviera Maya corridor.
Tren Maya Spends More Than It Earns in Operations
During the first three months of Tren Maya’s operation from Playa del Carmen to Cancún, a zone that has faced controversy due to the execution of the project, the passenger influx to the railcars barely exceeds one-third of their maximum capacity.
In fact, due to the low number of users, the Tren Maya has colloquially become a “bottomless pit.” Astonishingly, this emblematic project by Andrés Manuel López Obrador spends 700 pesos for every 100 pesos it collects.
According to data and documents provided via the National Transparency Portal by the state-participated mercantile society Tren Maya, the project operator with SEDENA as its main partner, the segment transported 36,473 users during the six daily trips between the two localities from March 15th to June 10th.
Tren Maya Operates at Only One-Third of Its Capacity: Few Passengers
Considering that each train has a capacity of 221 people, according to Tren Maya, the maximum daily mobility capacity is 1,326 users.
During these initial months of operation, it could have transported a maximum of 115,362 users. However, the actual operational figure during this period is only 32% of its capacity.
Even during the recent Easter holidays, when the Riviera Maya hotel occupancy exceeded 90% in over 57,000 available hotel rooms, the Tren Maya did not achieve high numbers. It faced challenges, including a derailment in Tixkokob.
Tren Maya: An Incomplete Project with Unfinished Sections
On July 15th, General Óscar David Lozano Águila, director of the Tren Maya, shared similar figures for the five sections that have been operational so far. Three more sections remain to be completed: 5 South, 6, and 7.
He reported that by the 11th of the same month, 246,926 passengers had been transported.
Taking into account the capacity of each train, along with the recent openings and daily departures at different times, the federal project could have transported up to 433,570 users.
However, the figures provided by the military indicate that the project operates at 57% of its passenger transport capacity.
When Did the First Section of Tren Maya Begin Operating?
The Tren Maya has gradually opened since December 15, 2023, when ticket sales began for the journey from Cancún to Campeche. Subsequently, on January 1st, the route expanded from Cancún to Palenque.
Finally, on March 15th, it began operating from Cancún to Playa del Carmen—the most controversial section due to the environmental devastation of the Maya jungle, as reported by environmentalists.
A Half-Empty Train
Despite the discourse from AMLO and local leaders—such as Quintana Roo’s Mara Lezama (Morena) and Yucatán’s Mauricio Vila (PAN), who even donated 110 hectares of Yucatecan heritage to the project—claiming that the Tren Maya brings progress to communities, the reality is different.
“Great Failure” of Tren Maya Without Mayans;
However, members of the Maya communities do not board the train because it is not viable for them. They also criticize the project for significantly deforesting their land.
“In the case of the train, as we’ve said from the very beginning when it was announced, it was not designed to benefit the inhabitants of the Yucatán Peninsula, let alone the indigenous peoples like our Maya communities.
This train, to begin with, is not seen as an option for our communities in terms of mobility because it is foreign to our interests and the spaces where we move,” says Pedro Uc Be, a member of the Assembly for the Defense of Maya Territory (Múuch’ Xíinbal).
As an activist for Maya peoples’ rights, he is one of the main critics of the project, having witnessed the destruction of a significant portion of Maya territory due to the felling of virgin jungle and the impact on underground rivers where the railway tracks now run.
“They claimed that it would boost tourism, that it would attract many people from other places with this fast transportation from Palenque to Cancún. However, we’ve seen that it hasn’t moved people, nor is it fast. Moreover, we’ve observed that this train is not providing the service it was intended to offer because there are sudden derailments, breakdowns every three days—these kinds of situations are evident,” criticizes Pedro Uc.
Nobody Is Talking About or Desiring to Board the Train
He adds that the stations in Yucatecan territory are distant from the majority of Maya communities. To access points of interest between these localities, community members continue using the state highway network that has been in place for some time.
“In reality, it was not going to serve us or align with our community’s interests. Now we see that it’s not fulfilling what was presumed, transporting many people from all over. The truth is that people don’t consider this train; nobody is talking about or desiring to board it. People are going about their normal lives, tending to their milpas and work,” explains Pedro Uc Be.
“What starts poorly ends poorly. They told us it would be a huge success, but now we see that it isn’t. Why should we believe, it will be a success when it’s finished if it continues destroying everything in its path?” questions Pedro Uc, also a Maya poet.
What Business Owners Say About Tren Maya
On the other hand, the Coordinating Business Council (CCE), whose members supported the modification of the Tren Maya route in northern Quintana Roo, sets a deadline of a year and a half to determine whether it was a good public investment.
Most business chambers backed the project modification two years ago, opting for a jungle route instead of the original plan to use the federal highway 307 right of way.
“It needs a process of acceptance and maturation in service because there are other factors influencing its use. It will adapt and resolve over time. Initially, it’s not perceived, and the other factor is the publicity given to the mode of transportation. We need to give it time to see if it consolidates, which it should because otherwise, it would be a poor investment. I believe that in a year and a half, we’ll see the numbers it produces,” says Pablo Alcocer Góngora, President of the CCE in the Riviera Maya.
How Much Longer Until the Tren Maya Project Is Completed?
Of the approximately 1,400 kilometers planned for the total extension of the Tren Maya tracks, around 575 kilometers remain to be completed, primarily in Quintana Roo and Campeche. This represents 41% of the proposed length.
Carlos Veloz Avilés, an urban planner involved in various mobility-related projects in Quintana Roo, emphasizes that we must wait for the federal project to be fully completed, encircling the entire Yucatán Peninsula, to assess its viability.
“At this moment, we cannot fully grasp the project’s benefits and reach until it is entirely finished. Once it’s completed, we can evaluate its implementation, including routes and cargo capacity. Then we’ll see if it achieves the desired mobility,” explains Veloz Avilés.
However, the reality is that there is no precise date for the conclusion of work on the remaining sections—5 South, 6, and 7—which extend through a gap opened less than two years ago in the jungle.
Source: Grupo Megamedia
