Mexico has a new long-distance train. Not everyone is happy about it

Train travel in the Americas is not exactly easy. Railroads crisscross the continent, but it can be expensive, time-consuming, and inconvenient—at best—to try to use it as long-distance transportation. Flying is almost always not just hours or even days faster, but is also usually more affordable. A new project in southeast Mexico, however, challenges existing notions of what rail travel can do for tourism and public transportation. El Tren Maya—the Mayan train—opened its first segments in December, with the rest slated to open this February.

When it’s complete, the train will traverse over 1,500 kilometers between the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo. Stops along the way include the international beach resorts of Cancún, Tulum, and Playa del Carmen, plus Mayan archaeological sites like Chichén Itzá and Xcaret, which is somewhat of a cultural adventure theme park. The train offers economy-style seating as well as sleeper cars for longer journeys. Tickets currently range from about USD$40 to $107 for regular seats, according to Tren Maya’s website.

In just the first three weeks of opening the first segment in December, the train carried over 15,000 passengers. This is huge for tourists to the area, who will now be able to travel more easily between beaches and archaeological sites. The train will connect airports directly to Mayan temples, making it easier for visitors and locals alike to travel between towns. This could lift over 1.1 million people out of poverty by 2030.

But not everyone is so sure this is a great idea.

Among the many criticisms of the project is grave concern about environmental destruction. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government had initially promised that not a single tree would be damaged in the creation of the railway, but environmental advocates allege that as many as 10 million trees have been felled during the construction process. Aside from that, the railway acts as a barrier for wildlife, seeds, and spores, which could cause lasting damage to the Maya Forest—Latin America’s second-largest rainforest. 

“These [railway lines] are artificial borders for species like jaguars,” Aarón Hernández Siller, from Cemda, an environmental NGO, told The Guardian. “And they are so wide—more than 60 meters—that they are a border for certain seeds and spores, too.”

The sheer weight of the railroad and its trains, passengers, and cargo could also pose a safety risk. One of the defining features of the Yucatán is its subterranean limestone pools, called cenotes. These freshwater pools are a major tourist attraction and a source of drinking water—and they can also render the land unstable. Hernández Siller likened the ground to “Swiss cheese,” and said pressure from the railroad could collapse the fragile caves.

“The president has an idea of development that is from the mid-20th century,” Ana Esther Ceceña, an economist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told The Guardian. “There is no way to build a train like this without bulldozing the local ways of life.”

Originally, the project was expected to take about 15 years to complete, but if it wraps by February as anticipated, it will have taken just five. López Obrador’s plans for economic explosion in the area “is a vision that the people in the region were not told about, and have not agreed to,” Hernández Siller added. “They were told this is about social justice, when really it is all about economic ends—and ones that have little to do with them.”

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