By: Henrik Samuelsson/TT
Published: Less than 20 min ago
1 of 6 Photo: Marco Ugarte/AP/TT
A renaissance for train travel is being felt in many parts of the world. One of the year’s most talked about new lines is the Maya train, a giant construction around Mexico’s scenic Yucatán Peninsula.
But President López Obrador’s favorite project is being criticized as derailed even before it is finished.
With the Maya Train (Tren Maya in Spanish), tourists and the population will have new convenient connections between Caribbean bathing metropolises such as Cancún and Tulum, at the far end of the Yucatán Peninsula, and tourist destinations such as the Mayan ancient city of Chichén Itzá inland. There will be two lines, like a loop around the peninsula, with a total of 150 miles.
The main route from the inland city of Palenque out to Cancún is supposed to be inaugurated at the end of 2023. But criticism and question marks are pouring in.
Half a trillion?
The budget is set at 150 billion pesos (roughly SEK 80 billion), but it looks like it will burst. Some forecasts now land at over 280 billion pesos, reports the news agency AP, while other sources fear up to around 500 billion.
And the costs are not only financial. President López Obrador has classified the construction as important for Mexico’s national security. This classification allows exceptions to be made in environmental tests and consultation rounds among indigenous peoples. At the same time, the military gets a bigger role. The Ministry of Defense estimates that over 6,500 soldiers will be required to guard the tracks and stations – more than every 25th soldier in the country’s military.
“It’s crazy”
Many suspect that López Obrador wants the investment completed this year at all costs, in order to have a grand prestige project to show off when his six-year term expires next year.
– I’m not really against the train, but for a mega project like this, the planning normally takes over ten years, says primatologist Kathy Slater, who does research in the area, to AP.
– Planning is lacking here, it’s crazy, they don’t think about the consequences.
The machines excavate a 40-meter-wide corridor through the thick jungle, which is part of a rainforest area that is second only to the Amazon in the American continents. Animal lovers and researchers fear that the railway will become a wall through the rainforest, which will hit many species hard.
– I myself have seen groups of spider monkeys coming through the foliage. When they reach the deforested area, they see no way to get over, says Rodrigo Medellín, biologist at the university UNAM, to AP.
More jobs
Animal and plant life is important for the region’s jungle mystique to continue to attract more and more tourists. Mexico’s national tourism agency, Fonatur, has proposed a large number of animal crossings, including in the form of bridges, along the railway. However, Medellín is worried that it is not enough for, for example, jaguars and pumas, and that large mammals will still have an even more vulnerable existence.
Miguel Ángel Díaz makes his living guiding tourists to the mighty Mayan city of Calakmul, deep in the jungle. Like many others, he is divided.
– There will be more job opportunities for us guides. But a hard blow to nature.
Facts
Pioneering railways
American CNN has picked up on the Swedish concept of “flight shame”, and states that more and more people want to take the train again rather than fly. With both climate and wanderlust in mind, the media company lists 2023’s hottest new train routes. Some of the goodies, alongside the Mayan train:
Indonesia: The world’s fourth most populous country inaugurates its first high-speed railway. The trains must reach 350 km/h. But it only happens on parts of the 15-mile Jakarta-Bandung stretch, so the travel time will still be over half an hour. In and of itself, a real improvement from before, when the trains took around three hours.
USA: Despite the country’s size, passenger traffic on the railways has long been a low priority. Only now is the USA getting its first real high-speed traffic, i.e. trains that run at over 250 km/h. It is about the Avelia Liberty, new trains based on the French TGV that are being deployed on the New York–Washington route. The older trains have had a top speed of around 240 km/h, but the new ones push it to about 260 km/h on parts of the 35 mile stretch.
Europe: New, or new, night train lines are now popping up in several places. CNN sees the Brussels-Amsterdam-Berlin-Prague route, an initiative of the new operator European Sleeper, as the most important this year. It provides new opportunities for traveling between Eastern and Western Europe. And for Nordic travelers, it can be seen as a continuation of SJ’s and Snälltåget’s Stockholm-Berlin night train. The lines also mean that it is possible to travel by train from Sweden to, for example, Paris and London with just two changes.
Sources: CNN, European Sleeper, Amtrak
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