Experts have warned of the potential collapse of the elevated Maya Train line between Cancún and Tulum, as it is supported by seven thousand piles driven into the porous karst soil of the cenotes. They also criticize the idea of using freight trains given this risk.
“A single pile sinking by just 5 or 10 centimeters could be fatal; it would pull the others down, tilt the track, and cause it to collapse,” Wilberth Esquivel, a civil engineer specializing in structural construction in the area, told TV Azteca.
He added that they are not simply speculating or making things up: “Those of us who have been building in this area know that when piles are driven into the ground, they must encounter a resistant stratum; you can’t have piles floating, without settling.”
The Cancun-Tulum train travels 80 kilometers along an elevated viaduct, supported by columns that sink into karst soil composed of soft limestone, which dissolves with water and causes cave-ins in the caverns. “We believe that over time, water and infiltration could alter the subsoil where this is built, and that could cause a collapse,” said Esquivel.
For his part, Guillermo Dchristy, a speleologist, commented that “if you put a column in soil that is constantly dissolving, you’ll have columns that, instead of being supported, will be floating,” he indicated.
They also criticize Claudia Sheinbaum’s government for promoting the Maya Freight Train. “This absurd idea of a freight train has to be stopped. I don’t know what they want to take out or what they want to put into the jungle. What kind of thinking is this? What kind of thinking applauds this idea? This is seriously the beginning of a horror movie where the expert is issuing a warning and no one listens, and the world ends,” said Pepe Urbina, a cave diver.
In October 2025, the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature confirmed that the Maya Train has caused serious and permanent damage in southeastern Mexico, classifying it as ecocide and ethnocide. (Maya Train: International tribunal condemns ecocide and ethnocide).
The ruling holds the Mexican government, headed by Claudia Sheinbaum, responsible for violating the rights of nature and the collective rights of the Maya peoples of the peninsula. During 2024, the Tribunal inspected sections 5, 6, and 7 of the Maya Train and documented significant environmental impacts, many of them irreversible.
Source: reportur
