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This is the “Tren Maya” on its maiden voyage in December 2023. The train travels from Cancún towards Palenque with fog and confetti. The route network on the Yucatán Peninsula is expected to be around 1,500 kilometers long by the summer.
The “Maya Train” is one of the Mexican government’s most important infrastructure projects. It is intended to create new jobs, stimulate the economy in the southeastern region and promote tourism. And at the same time preserve ecosystems and the environment – at least that’s what the website says. Can that succeed?
Guillermo D'Christy, activist of the “Selvame del Tren” collective:
“The reality is that the authorities have never been interested in securing the caves and underground rivers in this area. They always just wanted to ensure construction. We found out these days that divers were looking for pilings about 250 meters from this area. They found concrete, but no steel casings. Concrete was poured directly into some of these areas.”
This video, which an activist collective shared on Facebook at the beginning of February, is intended to prove the allegations. Mexico's gigantic railway project has long been criticized. Certain sections of the route run through a jungle area that is considered the second most important forest reserve in Latin America after the Amazon.
In the fall of 2018, the newly elected President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador assured that “not a single tree” would be felled in the “Maya Train” project, “on the contrary.”
However, the NGO “CartoCrítica” has compared satellite images; more than 6,000 hectares of forest have been cleared since 2018 to expand the tracks. In February 2023, the authority responsible for the “Maya Train” project admitted that 3.4 million trees had been felled. The activist collective “Selvame del Tren” even estimates there are ten million trees.
The train's route also leads through a karst landscape. Environmental activists worry about ancient cave systems and freshwater supplies.
Guillermo D'Christy, activist from the “Selvame del Tren” collective:
“The rock is so soft that it crumbles easily. If you just touch it with your fingers, you can tear it off. Due to the vibrations from trains and machines on the surface, this blanket will gradually become thinner. It will collapse.”
Construction of the train line began five years ago; the Mexican government had budgeted almost nine billion US dollars. According to the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, costs have now risen to $30 billion.
In May 2022, environmental activists went to court to temporarily stop the project. The government appealed, and Mexican President López Obrador issued a decree classifying the construction work as a matter of “national security.” Work was then resumed under the supervision of the army. The activists see this as a contradiction.
Guillermo D'Christy, activist of the "Selvame del Tren" collective:
"When we talk about national security, for us it means water and not a tourist-military train that was planned without really carrying out a serious study, social justice can prove. Social justice doesn’t mean we run out of water. Social justice doesn’t mean having contaminated water.”
A government environmental impact study for this section of the project states that the risk of collapse was taken into account when designing the tracks and that there should be a prevention program. This doesn't convince environmentalists.
At 160 km/h through the jungle – that will soon become reality. Another section of the route is scheduled to open at the end of February, and all seven will be in operation after the presidential elections in June. Despite all the criticism.