Maya train | Mexican President inaugurates first part of $20 billion project on Yucatan peninsula

President Obrador inaugurates $20 billion, 950-mile Maya Train connecting beach resorts & archaeological sites in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.

Mexico’s President on December 15 inaugurated the first part of the pet project of his administration, a tourist train that runs in a rough loop around the Yucatan peninsula.

The $20 billion, 950-mile line, called the Maya Train, is meant to connect beach resorts and archaeological sites. However, it is not finished yet. Officials pledged the rest of the line would be ready by the end of February. But it was clear from the unfinished earthworks and the existence of just a single lane of a planned double-lane track, even the first section has not been completed yet.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador opened a 473 km (290 miles) stretch on Dec. 15 between the colonial Gulf coast city of Campeche and the Caribbean coast resort of Cancun. That is about one-third of the entire project and covers the least controversial stretch.

It will take about 5 1/2 hours to travel from Campeche to Cancun at an average speed of about 80 km per hour (50 miles kph), though officials have promised the train will be capable of speeds of up to 120 km per hour (75 miles per hour).

There will be two trains per day each way, with stops in the colonial city of Merida, the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza and about ten other towns. Originally, officials had planned on charging separate, lower fares for Mexicans on the line, and foreign tourists would pay a higher fare.

But the only prices listed for the first runs were differentiated only by first-class and “tourist class” tickets, on sale starting Dec. 16, though most are sold out.

A first-class ticket on one of the two trains from Cancun to Merida each day will cost the equivalent of $68. A first-class bus ticket on the same route costs about $58, with buses leaving about every half hour.