Summary

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico began a project during his term of building a 50 mile tourist train line to connect the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. The railway system in Mexico is mainly freight oriented, although there is passenger service in some urban parts of the country. Revolution and political instability stifled progress on the financing and construction of an intercontinental railway line. Porfirio Diaz inherited 398 miles of railroads belonging to the British owned Mexican Railroad and by 1910 increased to 15,360 miles built almost exclusively by American, British and French investors. In comparison, by 1910 the United States had 240,293 miles of railroad. In 2014, ex President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed intercity train service under the Mexico City- Toluca projects, but the project was canceled due to doubts over the bidding process. Now AMLO aims to build ten industrial parks along the railroad to draw foriegn owned manufacturing plants away from the US border. Passenger services are not a major concern for the Mexican government and only included when deemed absolutely necessarily. The United States in comparison, has a more modern system of railroads that have been in place now for decades in which passengers and freight are easily connected through the entire country. As a result of imperialism in Mexico, the political leadership of the country has not been able to provide reliable public transportation for its citizens. The United States has made sure that their relationship with Mexico has been one that benefits them, leaving the citizens of Mexico to suffer the consequences. In order for the United States to have a comparative advantage in manufactured goods, it must force Mexico and other Latin American countries to have a specialization in raw goods. Unfortunately this puts Mexico at a disadvantage as raw goods are not as lucrative as manufactured goods. This has caused Mexico to not be able to be as developed as the United States in terms of public services which is seen as now in 2022, Mexico is just attempting to create a larger passenger railroad which has existed in the United States for over 100 years. ALMO is interested in building this new railroadto be able to bring jobs to southern Mexico as most currently are mostly located in the north, alongside the American border. This is yet another example of the United States soft power and as Mexico’s economy is largely dependent on America. It is predicted that ALMO will not be able to fund his project before his term ends and it will most likely remain unfinished. Today there are only four passenger train lines in existence in Mecio, The Chihuahua al PAcifico, a tourist train line running through Copper Canyon, The Tequila Express in Jalisco with the destination of tequila distilleries, The Surburbano; a commuter system in the Mexico City metro area and lastly the Toluca-Mexico City line which is still under construction. I believe that building railroads in Mexico is a positive project which will benefit the Mexican people. As of 2018, 36% of Mexicans did not own or have access to a car. The constriction of railroad lines will create jobs, not only during the construction period but will allow Mexicans to move around and commute into areas where they are able to work, in addition to bringing jobs to the southern tip of the country.
“Railway Reform: Toolkit for Improving Rail Sector Performance.” Railway Reform: Toolkit for Improving Rail Sector Performance, https://ppiaf.org/sites/ppiaf.org/files/documents/toolkits/railways_toolkit/.
Published by Statista Research Department, and Jul 2. “Mexico - Share of People Who Have Access to a Car 2017-2018.” Statista, 2 July 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/914955/mexico-access-to-cars/.