All aboard! Mexico’s Yucatan Train Maya Now Complete For Tourists

Mexico’s Yucatan Train Maya Now Complete For Tourists

The ambitious, and often criticized, train project in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula has finally been completed.

A total of 1,554 kilometers of train tracks have been laid in the Train Maya project started by Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and completed four years later by Current President Claudia Sheinbaum.

In fact, President Sheinbaum recently was in Chetumal with Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama to officially declare the project complete.

“The Maya train tells the world, so it can be heard clearly and far away, that Mexicans come from far away, but we also go far with hope in our hearts and the pride of the cultural greatness that gives us identity that sustains Mexican humanism,” she said.

All Aboard For Tourism

The Train Maya was designed in part to help bridge gaps in transportation between some of the urban centers of tourism in the Yucatan Peninsula with many of the more rural areas.

For example, it made it easier for tourists visiting Mexican Caribbean destinations such as Cancún, Tulum, Cozumel and Playa del Carmen to visit more remote popular tourist destinations such as the Mayan ruins including and around Chichén Itza.

Train Maya also has made it easier for tourists to add the Mexican Caribbean destinations to a vacation to the emerging tourist destination in the Yucatan, Merida, and vice versa. Merida was considered a top Mexican travel destination by many travel magazines and writers in the past few years.

With the completion to Chetumal, travelers now have access to the popular tourist lagoon destination of Bacalar or to continue their Mexican Caribbean travel over the border into Belize.

Moving Past the Controversies

Mexican President Announces First Mayan Train Ticket Sales Date

There are still a number of controversies around the Train Maya service in Mexico.

One was the fact that the train early on was subject to a number of delays and breakdowns leaving tourists and other travelers stranded. In one case, the train even jumped the tracks near a station. However, most of those issues have been resolved with time.

Another controversy has been the cement pillars environmentalists claimed were driven into ancient caverns and cenotes. Also, the clearing of rainforest to build the tracks. Many of those claims are still to be resolved.

Recently, controversies have come forward about a lack of tourist ridership on more of the remote tracks of the Train Maya. Obviously, this will need to be addressed. However, it would have been a mistake to build the train only for tourism.

Future Tourism Train Plans in Mexico

According to President Sheinbaum, the Mexican Government is already planning to build the second stage.

“We will expand it with the cargo train and we will connect it with the interoceanic train,” she said.

Although, this is not expected to carry tourists and other passengers.

Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador once called for the building of a Baja California tourist train from San Diego, Calif. all the way to Los Cabos. However, nothing new has been released on that proposed project and no plans have been put forward by the Sheinbaum administration.

It can be that the success of the Train Maya project is still being evaluated before moving forward with additional train tourism projects.