President Claudia Sheinbaum has inaugurated construction on the passenger train that will connect Querétaro with Mexico City, a flagship project of the current administration that aims to reduce travel time between the two cities and benefit six million passengers annually.
The president has said that the project is part of the more than 3,000 kilometers of passenger trains that will be built over the next six years. The Mexico City-Querétaro Train has a tentative inauguration date of 2027 after an estimated construction period of two years and six months. The company Gafsacomm, an arm of the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena), is in charge of the operation, which has previously managed projects such as the Mayan Train.
“These trains, the Querétaro and Irapuato section, will begin construction around June or July, and this year we’ll also begin from Saltillo to Nuevo Laredo. We’ll go in stages,” Sheinbaum said from the Querétaro municipality of Pedro Escobedo on April 27.
What will the Mexico-Querétaro Train be like?
The new passenger railway will have a 226-kilometer double-track layout that will connect Querétaro with Mexico City in an estimated two hours. The project will have a fleet of trains with a capacity of 450 passengers and will run at a maximum speed of 200 kilometers per hour.
The general director of the Railway Transport Regulatory Agency, Andrés Lajous Loaeza, has stated that the goal of the project is to have passenger trains connecting Mexico City with Querétaro and reduce travel times.
“Our goal is for a person who boards the train in Querétaro, or in Mexico City, to know that they will reach their destination in just under two hours. It’s not just the travel time, but the certainty of the route,” he said.
The trains are expected to benefit the populations of the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico, the Metropolitan Area of Querétaro, San Juan del Río, Tula, among other cities.
What will the route be?
The project, valued at approximately 144 billion pesos, includes the construction of stations in Huehuetoca, State of Mexico; Tula, Hidalgo; San Juan del Río, Querétaro; and Buenavista, Mexico City. The construction of bus stops in other towns along the route will also be evaluated.
Meanwhile, the new passenger rail is expected to connect with the Suburban Train that runs from Buenavista to Cuautitlán, the Metro, the Metrobús, and the capital’s Ecobici system. In the state of Querétaro, it will connect with the QroBus service.
Additional Railway Works
The next passenger train will require the construction of 77 bridges, 12 tunnels, three viaducts, two bypasses, and two interchanges designed to cross the diverse terrain and urban areas in order to minimize impacts on existing infrastructure.
Finally, the governor of Querétaro, Mauricio Kuri González, has asserted that the project will create new jobs and improve mobility for the population.
Source: elpais
