The route of the Maya Train has changed once again, the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur) said on Tuesday: the train will no longer run through Mérida, Yucatán, but rather will stop at a station in Teya, outside the city.
The change comes just a week after Fonatur director Rogelio Jiménez Pons said the cost of the project would be one third higher than originally anticipated, due to a range of changes. One of those changes moved a planned station in Campeche city out of the capital after encountering resistance from residents.
The Mérida route change was made after a government analysis showed that the change would save construction time. The decision will “avoid problems related to construction and mobility within the city,” Fonatur said, adding that given the 2024 project completion goal, time and resources must be used efficiently.
Some Mérida residents celebrated the announcement that the station would be built outside the city, rather than at its original planned location in the area of Mérida known as La Plancha.
“It’s a victory for the neighbors. It shows that when people unite their voices, they can propose something good for the city, the state … It makes me very happy that all the work we did … has had a good outcome,” said Félix Rubio Villanueva, a member of the collective Gran Parque La Plancha. He said residents and faculty of the Autonomous University of Yucatán were among those who worked to keep the station out of Mérida.
Despite the rerouting, authorities said a future station within the city is not out of the question.
With reports from El Universal, Proceso and La Jornada
