Mexico Speeds Up $10 Billion Train Project to Meet 2023 Deadline

Flagship infrastructure project seeks to revitalize the south
Project faces ballooning costs, logistics and legal challenges

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (center) takes part in a ceremony in Palenque to launch the construction of the Mayan Train, a rail network in the Yucatán Peninsula, on Dec. 16, 2018.Photographer: Julio Munoz/Mexican Presidency/AFP

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By Maya Averbuch

January 25, 2022 at 4:52 PM UTC

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Mexico’s controversial $10 billion train project linking five southern states will be ready late next year amid changes in the plan to speed it up in time for inauguration, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday.

The Maya Train, one of Lopez Obrador’s flagship infrastructure projects intended to revitalize Mexico’s impoverished south, has faced logistics, legal and construction challenges since its launch in late 2018. The president is opting now to take his ambitions down a notch in favor of guaranteeing that it will run by December 2023.