The “Tren Bajío” is an incredible privately financed railway project that seeks to connect Mexico-Querétaro-León through existing tracks. It even contemplates a connection with the Santa Lucía Airport and the Buenavista Suburban Train.
Although the government of Guanajuato has not officially received a presentation on the matter, it has expressed openness to the project that TMSourcing, a services and consulting company, presented to the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation to carry it out as soon as possible.
The project seeks to build a passenger train on the existing tracks. Currently, the concession has not yet been awarded, but there are already many people excited about the train being built. To date, the routes, the economic and tourist viability, and the best way to build the tracks are being thought about and studied. What is more or less known is that the project will begin with an investment of around 50 billion pesos just in railway elements.
It would also require an initial amount of 80 million pesos to carry out the feasibility studies corresponding to the use of the tracks. The project will require the approval of the states of Querétaro, Mexico City, State of Mexico, as well as Kansas City Southern and Ferromex, who currently have the concessions for the tracks in the state, which are used only for freight.
The logistics of occupying the tracks for freight trains is highly complex, since they travel at different speeds, are of different ages, and there are loads that represent greater complexity than others, and the same with passengers.
However, if the Tren Bajío is implemented, an extension of 416 kilometers of tracks is contemplated, connected by 12 stations, in the case of Guanajuato located in León, Silao, Irapuato, Salamanca and Celaya, in the case of Querétaro it contemplates San Juan del Rio, Tula, Huehuetoca, ending in Buenavista, connecting five metropolitan areas of the country and mobilizing more than 40 thousand passengers daily.
This decision is added to the project of the current federal government administration, to bet on railway systems as means of tourist transportation and it seems that it is looking good.
The participation of various investors, government authorities, ejidatarios and academics from various disciplines is still to be accepted and studied by private legal and financial services. What is known is that in 2022, Ameriko Railways is seeking developments estimated at 200 billion pesos, which will start between 2022 and 2026, in various parts of the country.
Source: mxc
