The federal government modified the concession title of Ferrocarriles Suburbanos after the company voluntarily relinquished operation of the Lechería-AIFA route, which it had held since 2021.

This follows the announcement by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum regarding the delay in the expansion of the suburban train to Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) , a section that was to be built by the concessionaire. Due to these circumstances, the Mexican Army will now be the one to carry out the work.

“It had been assigned to the concessionaire of the suburban train route, and since the end of the previous administration and when we took office, we made the joint decision to operate it ourselves, and for the military engineers to also carry out that project. The concessionaire had had plenty of time to develop it,” Sheinbaum said at the time.

Through the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) , the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) indicated that the changes include five trains owned by the federal government that were also under concession for the operation of this section.

The initial agreement contemplated 10 trains, so the remaining five units have not yet been formally delivered to the concessionaire, as they were in the process of being assigned to the agency.

The document specified that it was on September 17, 2024, when the concessionaire and the company signed the delivery-acceptance certificate to certify the physical delivery of the works executed by the concessionaire on the Lechería-AIFA route.

The modification to the concession title must be carried out within 180 days of its signature by both parties, SICT and the concessionaire, on February 28, 2025.

The SICT clarified that Ferrocarriles Suburbanos will continue to provide public passenger rail service, operating as regular suburban rail services on the Cuautitlán-Buenavista and Cuautitlán-Huehuetoca routes in the State of Mexico, and on the San Rafael, Tlalnepantla, State of Mexico, to Tacuba route in Mexico City.

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Due to the delay in the extension of the suburban train to the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) of the section that would be built by the Suburban Train concessionaire, it will now be the Mexican Army that carries out said work.

“It had been assigned to the concessionaire of the suburban train route, and since the end of the previous six-year term and when we came in, we made the joint decision to operate it ourselves, and for the military engineers to also do that work. The concessionaire has had plenty of time to develop it,” said Claudia Sheinbaum, President of Mexico, at her morning press conference.

It should be noted that this work began during the period of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in joint work with CAF México , the concessionaire of the road that runs from Buenavista to Cuautitlán.

The Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT) modified the concession title granted to Ferrocarriles Suburbanos, in order to carry out connectivity works and provide the public service of passenger rail transport on said route, so the concessionaire  requested the extension of the term of the same as part of the economic and financial restructuring,  with the purpose of making it viable and restoring the previously established conditions, with which it was granted 18 more years of concession.

The federal government has confirmed that  the expansion of the suburban line  will begin operations next July  , two years after the announcement made  by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“In July it will arrive at AIFA and in March we will begin construction towards Pachuca, which will be inaugurated in 2027, as well as the one to Querétaro, and the two that will begin are Querétaro-Irapuato and Saltillo-Nuevo Laredo,” Sheinbaum said.

Andrés Lajous Loaeza, general director of the Railway Transport Regulatory Agency (ARTF), said that the Lechería-AIFA train is currently 80 percent complete.

For his part, Gustavo Ricardo Vallejo Suárez, commander of the “Felipe Ángeles” Engineering Group, announced that they are carrying out a study to determine the feasibility of all new trains leaving from the Buenavista station of the Suburban train.

“We are doing a scan of the station, reviewing the structure, what spaces we can make available to have a proposal that can be considered. The current Suburban service will be added to the train that goes to Pachuca and also the regional trains Querétaro to Laredo and via Guadalajara to Nogales, there is space and it is possible to coexist,” he said.

He recalled that they carry out the basic engineering of railway projects, where the requirements, parameters and other requests of the projects are specified, with the aim of having a unification of typology. He specified that they will carry out these studies with their own resources, in order to have these documents as soon as possible.

He said that the Ministry of National Defense will deliver the basic engineering next April as input for SICT to carry out the bidding for the construction of the Saltillo-Nuevo Laredo and Querétaro-Irapuato sections.

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El cargo Military personnel take over construction of the train to AIFA apareció primero en T21.