The federal government has formally announced that it will build a passenger rail project to link three México state municipalities to the east of Mexico City.
Announced by President López Obrador, the 27.9-billion-peso (US $1.5-billion) project will connect Chalco, México state, to the Santa Martha Metro station in the Mexico City borough of Iztapalapa.
Slated to begin operations in 2024, the 15.5-kilometer, electrically-powered railroad will likely have seven stations including the two terminals and run via the municipalities of Valle de Chalco and Ixtapaluca. A ticket is to cost 10 pesos.
The project is similar to one announced by the former federal government that never got off the ground. It planned to extend line A of the Metro to Chalco from its southern terminus in La Paz, México state.
The project was forecast to cost 11.6 billion pesos but was never allocated the resources. The newspaper El Universal reported that the former government instead decided to build the Mexicable cable car system in the México state municipality of Ecatepec.
The current government has already allocated resources in its 2021 budget to begin construction of the new project. A cost-benefit analysis conducted by a private firm was delivered to the government at the end of last year.
The rail project would not only benefit residents of Chalco, Valle de Chalco and Ixtapaluca but also people living in other densely populated México state municipalities that are part of greater Mexico City’s southeastern sprawl. They include La Paz, Chimalhuacán and Chicoloapan.
It is predicted that almost 138,000 passengers will use the rail service per day in its first year of operation and that demand will increase to just over 168,000 in 2025.
The government has several other rail projects on its hands.
It intends to complete the Mexico City-Toluca intercity railroad, which was left incomplete by the Peña Nieto administration, and extend the Mexico City suburban rail line to the new Santa Lucía airport that is currently under construction.
In addition, the government is building the Maya Train in the country’s southeast and plans to upgrade the rail link across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec between Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.
Source: El Universal (sp)
