Trains in Mexico

[STEVIEBOY1]

I was watching a TV Programme on Channel 5 this weekend about El Chepe Train which runs along part of the route from Chihuahua in the centre of the country to Los Mochis for its port on the Pacific Ocean.
There seem to be 2 services, a regular passenger train along the whole route and a higher class train starting further down the line from Chihuahua. It seems that originally the line went across the whole country linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and that took about 100 years to build, only completed in the 1960s. However I looked online and in the Overseas timetables and there do not seem to be any other passenger trains apart from this one in Mexico, is that correct, are there freight lines and does the link from Chihuahua to the Atlantic still exist.? It looked a to be a great journey and the scenery was not what I imaged Mexico to look like. The trains looked smart too.

 

[Seanesheep]

Tony Robinson featured the El Chepe recently as well as explaining about the lack of other trains in Mexico, on his railway series.
Seat 61 also mentions it ... https://www.seat61.com/SouthAmerica.htm#Mexico

 

[hexagon789]

I was watching a TV Programme on Channel 5 this weekend about El Chepe Train which runs along part of the route from Chihuahua in the centre of the country to Los Mochis for its port on the Pacific Ocean.
There seem to be 2 services, a regular passenger train along the whole route and a higher class train starting further down the line from Chihuahua. It seems that originally the line went across the whole country linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and that took about 100 years to build, only completed in the 1960s. However I looked online and in the Overseas timetables and there do not seem to be any other passenger trains apart from this one in Mexico, is that correct, are there freight lines and does the link from Chihuahua to the Atlantic still exist.? It looked a to be a great journey and the scenery was not what I imaged Mexico to look like. The trains looked smart too.

Correct. Mexico once had an extensive network of InterCity trains run with US-style diesels and many ex-US passenger cars often bought second hand from private companies in the US which gave up passenger operations in the 1960s/70s.

The system was privitised in the 1990s and the private companies were more interested in the profitable freight operations so they all ended passenger service between the late-1990s and early 2000s.

 

[Alfonso]

Contracts are being let to build the tren Maya in the South East, which is for passenger service, and there is constant stop-start progress on rebuilding lines from Mexico City to commuter towns, and of course many people chasing the American Dream riding freight trains from the Southern border to the North.

 

[MarcVD]

Encore privatisation, they even started electrifying some lines of the network, and ordered several ee60 locomotives from GE. The project was cancelled and the electric locs never turned a wheel in Mexico.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Thank you for the replies.

 

[hexagon789]

Encore privatisation, they even started electrifying some lines of the network, and ordered several ee60 locomotives from GE. The project was cancelled and the electric locs never turned a wheel in Mexico.

They ended up on the Black Powell railway along with identical locos ordered by the company that ran it. They ran in NdeM livery with full branding still!

 

[MarcVD]

Black Mesa & Lake Powell, to be exact. Now sadly closed, not so long ago. And also on Deseret Western (now Deseret Power) Railway, another isolated line. Amtrak also had the same, but in passenger traffic they were a failure.

 

[hexagon789]

Black Mesa & Lake Powell, to be exact. Now sadly closed, not so long ago. And also on Deseret Western (now Deseret Power) Railway, another isolated line. Amtrak also had the same, but in passenger traffic they were a failure.

I made a bit of a mess of that name!

Regarding Amtrak utilising the E60s I believe they were too unstable riding at high speed so were restricted to 90mph which was too slow for the intended schedules.

 

[cle]

There is one suburban line to Cuatitlan, and others being planned including to Toluca which should open next. That one is interesting as it will serve Santa Fe, which is a massive commercial area (think Canary Wharf, but probably more Dubai, it’s pretty awful) without even metro service. So that will be a game changer.

Longer rail, only the Maya tren which is still very controversial. I’d think something to Puebla would be a reasonable faster rail aim.