In the last 25 years, the private sector has invested $14 billion dollars in freight rail in Mexico. This amount is equivalent to 1.4 automotive plants like the one recently announced by Tesla to be located in Nuevo León. By 2023 the sum is $655 million dollars. Typically, these investments are aimed at improving and modernizing the 20,000 kilometers of railway that we have, in addition to acquiring the latest generation locomotives and renewing the fleet of railway cars. The freight railway is a sector closely linked to technological development, as it has applications for essential functions that could be included within the so-called “internet of things”, such as the control and dispatch of trains, signaling, sensors that monitor the proper state of the fleet and infrastructure, cargo traceability and optimization of yards and terminals.
To meet the future demand for border crossings that will be generated by the Mexico-United States-Canada Treaty, two new railway crossings are being built on the northern border. The reconstruction of the Ojinaga, Chihuahua bridge will make it possible to re-establish a new railway crossing with Presidio, Texas and thus bring the Dallas-Fort Worth area closer to our rail network. In Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, work has already begun on the second railway bridge with Laredo, Texas, doubling the capacity at that point of greatest border rail interchange between the US and Mexico. However, not everything is about investing in infrastructure to have better border crossings. It will be necessary to work hand in hand with Mexican and North American authorities to optimize customs and security inspections, making use of the best technology and coordination protocols.
Without a doubt, we have multiple railway challenges in front of us and several of them have to do with investment. It is assumed as a priority to define a new package of “libations” railways for the medium-long term, in coordination with the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT). Although there is already substantial progress in the construction of those that correspond to Monterrey, Nuevo León and Celaya, Guanajuato, it is necessary to identify a half dozen works of “deliverances” of metropolitan areas, as well as those called “shortenings”. The latter are segments that, as their name indicates, reduce the distance on the existing route between two points, normally by overcoming some geological-topographic obstacles. The pace of private investment in the freight railway has been frankly good and the idea is that it continue like this so that it continues allowing the State to allocate more resources to address other social needs. On April 18 and 19 in Mérida, Yucatán, these and other issues of freight and passenger trains will be discussed at the annual meeting of the railway industry. The reader can find more information in www.exporail.mx.
