Mexican HSR?

[lpetrich]

New line projects move forward in Mexico - Railway Gazette

On January 28 Secretary of Communications & Transport Gerardo Ruiz signed an agreement with José Calzada, Governor of the state of Querétaro, setting out how the federal and state governments are to co-operate on the project to build a new line for passenger services between Mexico City and the city of Querétaro.

Length ~ 200 km
Speed ~ 160 km/h - 180 km/h
Travel time <~ 2 h

Let's see if that gets anywhere.

[David Benton]

i beleive this line was started in the late 80's -early nineties .I remember passing some new viaducts etc been built .i thought it was strange , the terrain didnt seem to justify viaducts , ( in places they were only a few feet off the ground ), seemed to me to be more of a 'make work " project , rather than a plan to get the train there .
a few years later , most passenger trains in Mexico were scrapped .

[lpetrich]

President of Mexico outlines plan to rejuvenate passenger rail service - The Washington Post

Peña Nieto surprised many at his Dec. 1 inauguration when he announced a multibillion-dollar plan to restore passenger rail service in Mexico, nearly 15 years after his own Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) finished dismantling it.

His proposals start with the completion of a rail line across the Yucatan Peninsula linking the colonial city of Merida to the beach resorts of the Mayan Riviera. As soon as next year, cruise ship passengers and sunburned college kids may be swilling cold beers in air-conditioned cars while the scenery zips by at 110 mph, stopping at archaeological sites and jungle lodges.

Far more ambitious will be a $4.5 billion high-speed line between Mexico City and Queretaro, the booming manufacturing and aerospace hub 120 miles northwest of the capital. Long-term plans would extend the route to Mexico’s second-largest city, Guadalajara, eventually filling sleek rail cars with business executives, tourists and families freed up from the country’s clogged highways.

The article discussed the concerns of Mexico's freight operators about passenger trains getting in the way of their trains. The existing routes are often crowded both day and night, giving little room for passenger trains. The trains' average speed is around 15 mph, meaning 3 days from central Mexico to the US border. So the passenger trains will have their own tracks, where they can go at 100 - 120 mph.

[mtuandrew]

...The article discussed the concerns of Mexico's freight operators about passenger trains getting in the way of their trains. The existing routes are often crowded both day and night, giving little room for passenger trains. The trains' average speed is around 15 mph, meaning 3 days from central Mexico to the US border. So the passenger trains will have their own tracks, where they can go at 100 - 120 mph.

Sounds like the reincarnation of the Pennsylvania's Broad Way to me - drag freights and streamliners, nothing between speed-wise.

[lpetrich]

Mexico Sets $100 Billion Rail, Ports, Roads Plan - ABC News Also fiber-obtic cables.
Mexico sees $300 billion in infrastructure spending through 2018 | Reuters (transport and comm are 1/3 of that, or $100 billion)

The plans include a Mexico-City-Queretaro high-speed line, a line across the Yucatan Peninsula, and also a light-rail system for Guadalajara.

From the ABC-News article:

Pena Nieto will also have to reverse the poor reputation that the state-run trains built up in their final years, before service was cancelled in 1999. Trains often stopped inexplicably for hours, air conditioning broke down, cars moved at a snail's pace and sometimes took days to reach their destination.

But Tsung-Chung Kao, a professor at the railroad engineering program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, noted that "every country goes through that," convincing passengers that modern high-speed trains are not like their old versions.

"Every country that builds a first high-speed line, builds a second," Kao, noting "All around the world, people are building like crazy."

[lpetrich]

Tendering starts for high speed line to Querétaro - Railway Gazette

Representing an investment in excess of 40bn pesos, the new line will be engineered for operations at up to 300 km/h. Of the 210 km of new infrastructure between the Buenavista terminus in Mexico City and Querétaro, 12 km will be in tunnel and 16 km on viaduct.

Construction should start by the end of this year, and the line should go in service in the second half of 2017.

From Metropolitan areas of Mexico - Wikipedia
Mexico City: 20.1 m
Querétaro: 1.1 m

[David Benton]

Good news . I wonder if it will use any of the viaducts built in the 1990's?

[dowlingm]

The few times I've been vacationed in Quintana Roo, I've wondered about a rail line running from Cancun south from the airport (and likely north to the city and beyond to the north coast, but haven't gone there myself) to take all of the resort buses off the highway (not to mention the tourists off the exposed forecourt where you have to wait and wonder when your bus will show up and whether you're really at the right bay) and shift them to closer hubs. I imagine the coach drivers would probably object to their jobs relocating and shorter trip lengths.

It wouldn't have to be that fast or fancy - EMUs in 2x2 commuter fit would be as comfortable as a lot of minibuses used - and the terrain is pretty flat between Cancun and Tulum. There would be likely some social issues about whether locals would have access to the same trains (since these sort of projects always manage to find a PR problem for themselves) and the tour operators might be concerned about their customers alighting at the wrong stop for their resort.

If the train stop was integrated into the terminal building, it would be an immediate winner for tourists who thereby could avoid the gauntlet of officially sanctioned hawkers of trips and timeshares who infest the outer arrival hall.

[lpetrich]

China submits only bid for Mexican HS project | International Railway Journal

Evaluation of the proposal submitted by the consortium will begin immediately with the aim of concluding the deal by November 3. SCT says it expects construction to start in December and commercial services are due to begin operating in the second half of 2017.

[lpetrich]

Mexico revokes multibillion-dollar rail contract with China | World news | The Guardian

Mexico has revoked a contract for a multibillion-dollar, high-speed passenger rail link from a Chinese-led consortium after its uncontested bid sparked complaints, souring a state visit to China next week by President Enrique Peña Nieto.

The communications and transport ministry said late on Thursday that the government would hold a new auction for the contract, after lawmakers accused the government of favouring the group led by China Railway Construction Corp

[lpetrich]

After some talk about restarting bidding, we get this: High speed project cancelled as economy worsens - Railway Gazette

MEXICO: The federal government has decided to suspend ‘indefinitely’ the project to build a high speed line between Mexico City and Querétaro, Secretary of the Treasury & Public Finance Dr Luis Videgaray announced on January 30. The separate project to build a new railway for passenger and freight traffic between Mérida in the state of Yucatán and Puerto Venado in Quintana Roo has also been cancelled ‘definitively’.

[lpetrich]

Mexico compensates China for cancelled HS project | International Railway Journal

MEXICO's Federal Secretariat of Communications and Transport (SCT) has agreed to pay $US 1.3m in damages to China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) for costs incurred in bidding for the cancelled Mexico City – Queretaro high-speed line.