July 10,  2024 - SpectrumLocalNews.com -

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s massive, debt-fueled passenger rail building program is not going to end with the administration of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but will instead double, he said Wednesday.

López Obrador said his successor, president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, is planning to build three passenger train lines running from the capital to some cities on the U.S. border. López Obrador and Sheinbaum agree she will build about 1,850 miles (3,000 kilometers) of passenger rail, double the amount he built.

Sheinbaum said the trains would be electric and would run at speeds of up to 100 mph. Almost all of Mexico’s current freight trains run on diesel.

Sheinbaum said she was planning to build a passenger line from Mexico City to the border city of Nuevo Laredo — across the border from Laredo, Texas — a distance of about 680 miles at a cost of about $22 billion. However, the cost of most recent railway projects in Mexico has ballooned far above initial estimates.

Read more: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/politics/2024/07/10/mexican-president-says-his-successor-will-build-passenger-train-lines-to-u-s--border

Photo credit: Britannica