Mexico's Rail Transport System Faces Growing Safety Challenges

Concerns have been growing over the safety and security of Mexico’s transportation infrastructure. According to the latest data From the Pulse of Safety Report May 2023 by the Rail Transport Regulatory Agency (ARTF), there has been a significant increase in accidents, cargo theft and vandalism reports. 

ARTF’s document states that 1,240 incidents were reported during May 2023, marking a 5.2% increase compared to the previous month, in which 1,178 reports were filed. These reports encompass accidents, cargo theft and vandalism. Coahuila stands out for having the most total reports, followed by Guanajuato and Queretaro.

The most common reports centered around “vehicle collisions” at “Level Crossings.” States with the highest occurrences are Nuevo Leon, which leads the ranking with 13 reports (17.81%), Coahuila and Guanajuato. Most (95.89%) of these incidents took place on major roadways.

ARTF only measures cargo theft and vandalism reports received by the concessionaires and assignees of the Mexican Rai System (SFM) and should not be confused with the reports made to the corresponding public security institutions.

Cargo theft remains high, with reports increasing by 19.68% during the Jan-May 2023 period compared to the same timeframe in 2022. States most affected by cargo theft in May 2023 were Sinaloa, Sonora and Coahuila. Theft of grains, seeds and derivatives constituted 37.93% of the incidents, theft of construction materials represented 18.39% and theft of consumer goods represented 10.34%. Together, these three groups represented 66.67% of all reported incidents.

Vandalism continues to be a common problem, with incident reports increasing by 2.64% between May 2022 and May 2023. The most vandalized items were rolling stock, accounting for 49.73% of all reported cases. The states with the highest instances of vandalism to rolling stock were Coahuila, Queretaro and San Luis Potosi. However, vandalism of rolling stock decreased by 7.23% compared to the same month of 2022.