The Mexican government has started the second stage of passenger train construction, whose works and tenders will be in charge of the Ministry of National Defense (Defensa) and the Agency of Trains and Integrated Public Transport (ATTRAPI) .
“We finished all the technical studies, basic engineering and demand studies and the Felipe Ángeles Engineering Group will execute the Irapuato-León, León-Guadalajara and we have already launched the international public tender because we want more participation and more bids for the first section that goes from Querétaro to San Miguel de Allende, which is the Querétaro-San Luis Potosí,” said Efraín Deschamps Gutiérrez de Velasco, director of Works at ATTRAPI.
He announced that next Monday they will launch the bidding process for the San Luis Potosí to Saltillo section, while they continue with the demand and pre-investment studies and basic engineering for the Mazatlán-Los Mochis section, although he clarified that he does not yet have an authorized start date.
During his participation in the XXV National Meeting of Land Transportation , organized by the Mexican Association of Land Transportation Engineering (AMIVTAC) which is taking place in Morelia, Michoacán, he reiterated that for these sections there will only be dedicated lanes, so ” there will be no interaction with freight lanes , nor level crossings; we have maximum speeds of 160 to 200 kilometers per hour.”
He also mentioned that the third phase, planned for approximately 1,100 kilometers, will cover the Pacific Corridor, specifically the Guadalajara-Tepic, Mazatlán-Los Mochis (currently under development with no start date for construction), Los Mochis-Guaymas, and Guaymas-Hermosillo sections. A potential fourth phase would include the Tepic-Mazatlán and Hermosillo-Nogales sections.
“ We are building an integrated national rail network, connected to other modes of transport . Each of the stations we are building also includes an integrated space for urban public transport. We want to consolidate a modern rail system,” emphasized Efraín Deschamps Gutiérrez de Velasco.
Regarding the first stage, he recalled that two sections are being built by the Felipe Ángeles Engineering Group, the Mexico-AIFA and AIFA-Pachuca, and Mexico-Queretaro, while ATTRAPI, through tenders, is building the Queretaro-Irapuato and Saltillo-Nuevo Laredo sections.
Regarding the Saltillo-Nuevo Laredo section, he said that it is the longest stretch that is already under construction and covers 396.34 kilometers from the Derramadero industrial zone to Nuevo Laredo.
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