Mexico-Toluca Interurban Train Tests To Be Launched in 2024

The Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) announced that the Mexico-Toluca Interurban Train will be ready by the end of 2023 and will start with the testing phase in early 2024.

According to Manuel Parra, Director General for Railway and Multimodal Transportation, SICT, the project’s overall progress stands at 90 percent. He highlighted that the project’ phases 1 and 2 were completed, while phase 3 reported progress of 60 percent. The last section is being constructed under the supervision of Mexico City’s government and will finish at the Observatorio station. “This six-year [presidential] term will see the civil and electromechanical work done by the end of 2023 and at the beginning of 2024 we will start tests to eventually begin operations,” Parra said. 

If the schedule announced by Parra is met, the project would have a construction time of 10 years since it was started in 2014, during the presidential term of Enrique Peña Nieto, when the project was abruptly stopped. President López Obrador then reactivated the project. At the end of 2H22, the federal government announced that the project would be ready by September 2023, a couple of days before the end of Alfredo Del Mazo’s term as Governor of the State of Mexico.

The Interurban Train is an important project for the federal government, which aims to improve mobility in the country. On Apr. 20, 2022, MBN reported that SICT and Mexico City agreed to reallocate US$47 million to facilitate the project's development. With the resources, Mexico City was to build the Santa Fe and Observatorio stations, which included the construction of viaducts and other prefabricated concrete structures. On Jun. 15, 2022, SICT announced it agreed with Mexico City to reallocate another US$17 million to accelerate the project’s construction. 

On Oct. 27, 2022, SICT launched a tender to choose a company that will help the ministry to supervise the application, tracking and control of the resources it gave to Mexico City to develop its part of the project, with the contract’s figure standing at US$603,000. 

The Mexico-Toluca Interurban Train aims to connect Toluca, the capital city of the State of Mexico, with the western part of Mexico City. The project will consist of two terminals and six stations and 30 trains in rotation each featuring five wagons with the capacity of moving 230,000 passengers per day. The train is expected to reduce travel times by 90 minutes for a round trip.