MEXICO CITY — The environmental and financial costs of Mexico’s Maya Train tourism project are already massive, but authorities revealed another, unexpected cost of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s pet project on Tuesday.
The Defense Department said the project will require over 6,500 soldiers and National Guard officers to permanently guard its tracks and stations, out of the country’s total 166,000-member combined force.
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The 950-mile Maya Train line is meant to run in a rough loop around the Yucatán Peninsula, connecting beach resorts and archaeological sites.
Originally projected to cost around $8 billion, the train line now appears likely to rise to between $11 billion and $15 billion. Because no real feasibility studies were done, it is not clear whether the train will draw enough tourists or recoup its costs.
While some stretches of the train line run over existing tracks or alongside existing roads, other parts are being cut through the jungle, including a controversial stretch that cuts a 68-mile swath between the resorts of Cancún and Tulum.
Elon Musk Could Help Connect Maya Train To Airport
As the Maya Train project hurtles towards its completion, it could be set to gain connectivity with Cancun International Airport from an unlikely source – Elon Musk.
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However, as travelers who have visited Cancun during high season will know, the highways can be prone to long traffic jams and congestion, particularly during times of roadworks and other infrastructure development challenges. However, thanks to some blue-sky thinking from Mexico’s President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), solutions to Maya train-related traffic could be found underground, with a little help from Elon Musk’s construction business The Boring Company. Here’s everything we know about this exciting story so far.
The Maya train is the most exciting addition to the Cancun tourism scene in years and one of the largest infrastructure projects in Mexico in recent memory. With a sprawling 1,554km route, the Maya train will take travelers on a journey through 34 stations, around 7 nearby airports, and 26 archaeological zones, passing through the states of Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo as it does so – giving travelers easy access to the entire region.
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