THE Mexican government has announced that the “pre-opening” of Phase 3 of the Mayan Train project will take place on February 29, with passenger services commencing on the 45.6km of electrified double track from Cancún Airport to Playa del Carmen.
Further phases, due to open on the same date, have now been postponed until after the general election in June.
Mayan Train director general, General Óscar David Lozano Águila, announced on January 29 that services will depart from Cancún Airport at 09.00, 12.00 and 15.00, with return services leaving Playa del Carmen at 10.30, 13.30 and 16.30.
Serving one intermediate station at Puerto Morelos, Phase 3 will serve tourist destinations and archaeological sites along the Mayan Riviera, including the island of San Miguel de Cozumel off Playa del Carmen.
From the end of next month seven electric buses will be introduced to provide free transfers between the Mayan Train station and terminals 1, 2, 3 and 4 at Cancún International Airport.
Colonel Blas Andrés Núñez Jordan, head of the Operations Coordination Centre (CCO) at Mayan Train, reported work on was 86.7% complete between Cancún Airport and Playa del Carmen.
Sedena is the civil works contractor for Section 5 North, comprising 43.3km and the station at Puerto Morelos. Work on the 2.3km Section 5 South including the station at Playa del Carmen is being undertaken by ICA.
To traverse areas liable to flooding and to enable wildlife to safely pass under the new railway, 29.7km of Section 5 North runs on a concrete viaduct between 5m and 12m in height, with the remaining 13.6km on embankment.
ICA operations director, Mr Ricardo Ibarra García-Parra, reported that work had been completed to build the 2.1km line connecting Section 5 with Section 4, already in service between Cancún Airport and Izamal.
Providing access to the Mayan Train rolling stock maintenance facility, tracklaying on the new connection has involved installing 12 turnouts.
The president of Mexico, Mr Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has told reporters that opening of the remaining sections of the Mayan Train will be delayed by upcoming general election on June 2, which he had previously set himself as the deadline for completing the project in full.
“It is going to happen in parts,” López Obrador said, according to a report in Riviera Maya News. “It is a very big project.” The electoral process meant that he would not be able to officially open the remaining sections after February, but once the elections were over “we will be able to inaugurate,” he said.
Still to be completed are Section 6, running for 255km from Tulum to Chetumal, and the 254km Section 7 from Bacalar to Escárega. Section 2 of Mayan Train from San Francisco de Campeche to Escárega was opened by the president on December 31.
Ridership figures
Lozano Águila reported that 239 Mayan Train services carried a total of 37,601 passengers between the opening of Section 1 from Cancún Airport to San Francisco de Campeche on December 16 and January 28.
Of the total, 14,429 were local residents, 15,705 Mexican nationals and 1206 from other countries. Average train occupancy was around 72% or 157 passengers per train, with Mayan Train services carrying an average of 917 passengers a day.
A total of 22 stations are now open, with the most popular journey being Mérida Teya – Cancún Airport where 3716 tickets have been sold. This was followed by San Francisco de Campeche – Mérida Teya (3674), Cancún Airport – Mérida Teya (3502) and Mérida Teya – San Francisco de Campeche (3420).
Mérida Teya was the busiest station, used by a total of 9704 passengers, followed by Cancún Airport (9352), San Francisco de Campeche (7230) and Valladolid (3703).
In its first 41 days in passenger service, the Mayan Train fleet of Alstom DMUs covered a total of 12,465km, with the four trains recording individual totals ranging from 25,630km to 29,745km.
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