The railway is reborn with the inauguration of the Mexico-Toluca intercity train

Almost a decade after the start of its construction, during which it had to deal with the suspension of works, litigation and cost overruns, on September 14, the first phase of the Mexico-Toluca intercity train will come into service.

“It’s the revival of railroads in Mexico,” he said. Gabriel Zavala Aguilera, Executive Director of Economic Regulation of the Directorate General for Railway and Multimodal Development of the Ministry of Communications and Transport Infrastructure (SICT), while conducting a visit to the works, before the partial inauguration of the train that will be running, a when finished, 58 kilometers between Toluca and Mexico City.

Questioned on board train 19, as the unit moved from the workshop area to the Tecnológico station, in a journey that lasted 20 minutes, he pointed out that of the five sections in which the work is divided, the SICT is in charge of sections 1, 2, 4 and 5 and section 3 of Mexico City.

He explained that so far, the civil works in sections 1, 2 and 5 have progressed 100% over 41 kilometers; while the electromechanical part and telecommunications systems, which correspond to section 4, progress reaches 85%.

What remains in this first phase is to “finish the tests of the trains that will circulate and integrate the systems so that the cars have communication with the stations and with the control center” with which they hope to obtain certification in safety and quality .

In the section that will be in charge of Mexico City, which represents the remaining 17 kilometers of the train’s route, Zavala pointed out that the civil works are 60% complete and should be completed by December this year, while the electromechanical works and the telecommunications part should be ready in 2024, the year in which it should start its operations in full.

This landmark work, as described by Zavala, who has been in charge of the project since 2018, said it represents many hours of work, because it has not been an easy road.

“Over the last half year, the works were poorly planned, they had inexperienced managers, which led to cost overruns and disputes with the inhabitants who stopped the works for months.”

He noted that the train has seven stations, four of which are in the State of Mexico, which are: Zinacantepec, Pino Suárez, Tecnológico and Lerma; There will be three stations in Mexico City: Santa Fe, Vasco de Quiroga and Observatory.

In the first phase, it is planned to transport 9,000 people per day and once the works are completed, it is planned to have a capacity of 234,000 people per day.

He added that with this new transport, it is estimated that the transfer time will decrease from two hours to 38 minutes.

The route will have 30 trains of five wagons each, with a capacity of 719 people, 314 seats.

The trains will be able to run at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour, but to save energy they will initially run at 80 kilometers per hour, although this can vary between 80 and 100 kilometers per hour once the project completed.

The price of the ticket, he says, corresponds to the operating company which National Infrastructure Fund (Fonadin)but it is expected to be competitively priced so that the public will prefer rail as a mode of transportation.

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