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Mexico's passenger train plan


Joco

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I would love to travel by passenger train throughout Mexico.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/11/us-mexico-bombardier-rail-idUSBRE95A14R20130611?feedType=RSS&feedName=innovationNews&rpc=43

(Reuters) - Bombardier Inc (BBDb.TO), the world's biggest train manufacturer, anticipates bidding on all six of the new Mexican passenger rail projects it expects to be tendered later this year, the company's Mexico chief said on Tuesday.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has vowed to oversee a passenger rail renaissance in Mexico, with six major projects planned by 2018, including a high-speed connection between Mexico City and the industrial hub of Queretaro, the Mexican home of Bombardier's aerospace unit, about 136 miles north of the capital.

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I did it years ago - maybe 30? At the time they bought discarded? Canadian Pacific rail cars - or so I was told. Had a marvelous time - traveling from the Arizona border to Merida in a small sleeper car - over several months.

But I just don't see them spending that kind of money to resurrect right of way, tracks etc. Great idea - but what kind of priority would it have!

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Passenger rail service is no picnic in the US as railroads freight traffic has priority over passenger traffic. You have to remember who owns the rails.

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I heard the Secretary of Communication and Transportation on the Canal Once news last night, discussing exactly this topic with Adriana Pérez (the relatively hard-hitting newscaster). He specifically mentioned the cross-Yucatan passenger train as the priority. THE, not A, priority.

I'm pretty cynical about these things, and IMHO it's one of those "I'll believe it when I see it" situations.

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No matter which ine they build they will have to subsidise them so good luck to the trains. If they manage to have bullet trains between major cities some of the business going to aviation will go to the trains but any ride over 2 to 3 hours , will have to be a losing proposition . How many tourist will ride the train through yucatan on a daily basis? Another pipe dream

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Yes Toluca , Cuernavaca and Puebla would be god with good commuter train and Queretaro, Guadalajara Morelia could be liked with bullet trains to DF and if the schedules were geared for business people commute it probably would work past the 2 hours..it is easier to fly and probably just as cheap.

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A lot of the above destinations already have good highways and/or inexpensive airline connections.

What about a train service between Chapala and Guadalajara ?? It is getting more and more difficult by the day to drive up there. What a great boost for the economy and environment would that be.

Rony

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Yes Toluca , Cuernavaca and Puebla would be god with good commuter train and Queretaro, Guadalajara Morelia could be liked with bullet trains to DF and if the schedules were geared for business people commute it probably would work past the 2 hours..it is easier to fly and probably just as cheap.

Cheap to fly from or to Guadalajara to DF but where we live, San Luis Potosi, a one way commuter flight to either place is $4,500 pesos [5 hour luxury bus fare is $500.00 pesos]. Not to mention airport monopoly taxi fares at both airports.

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I love trains too but I would expect the problem here to be the same as in the U.S., namely the tracks, ownership, priority and maintenance.

We'll always cherish our travels in Europe by rail using first class Eurail passes. Back when we did it, they were a screaming bargain for U.S. tourists and there were always seats. You could pretty much hop on and off as you pleased.

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That should be in the good old days thresd...the trains are not cheap any longer but they are very convenient and extremely fast. Marseille used to be a whole night or day ordeal..no more in 4 hours from Paris you are there. Towns that are 250 km from Paris or 3 or 4 hours from there can be reached in one hour and have become outer subburbs..unfortunately...

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When more than 55,000,000 people, half the population live in poverty for them airlines are not cheap. All one has to do is look at the size of an airport such as Guadalajara and considering the population the airport and terminal are very small.

The number of buses between Mexico City and say Queretaro alone is huge with them leaving Mexico City from 4 large terminals including the airport. They arrive in Queretaro at least every half hour.

Mainecoons and then New Mexico has the Road Runner train that has to be a huge waste of money. That one I never understood even when living there.

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The problem with modern rail travel is that the trains go where politicians want them to go, not where people want to go. The Nogales to Guadalajara line was always filled. I don't know if it was making money though.

Listen to the song "El caballo blanco." It is really about that train that used to run from Guadalajara to Tijuana.

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The problem with modern rail travel is that the trains go where politicians want them to go, not where people want to go. The Nogales to Guadalajara line was always filled. I don't know if it was making money though.

Listen to the song "El caballo blanco." It is really about that train that used to run from Guadalajara to Tijuana.

The train ran from Mexicali to Guadalajara. When that train ran you had to buy tickets a month in advance and 3 months in advance at Christmas. Many people got off in Culiacan. My ex mother in law told me once when she and her husband were coming into the suburbs of Culiacan there was a gun battle going on outside and bullets were fly into the train and they all hit the floor. About 1985.

Jose Alfredo Jimenez' "El Caballo Blanco." It is really about the train running from Guadalajara to the frontera.

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Way back in 1982, a Mexican friend and I took the Elite night bus, 13 hours from Tijuana to Nogales. We spent the day with other friends in Nogales and then boarded the train for Guadalajara, late in the afternoon. The train stopped every little while and local women hopped on with big baskets of tacos, fruit, and soft drinks to sell.

When we got to Guadalajara the following afternoon, we went to the old downtown bus station and caught a second-class bus to Uruapan. We arrived in Uruapan at about 2AM. We dozed miserably in the Uruapan bus station till 6.30AM, when the earliest bus--la Flecha was its nickname--left for my friend's pueblo. The pueblo is 27 kilometers from Uruapan. In those days, the road was entirely unpaved and entirely up-hill, up a mountainside over switchbacks and looking out the window to the dropoff to--yikes! That last 27-kilometer leg of the trip took 3 hours. The entire trip, from Tijuana to her mother's door, took 52 hours. I loved every second of it. Those were indeed the good old days.

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The train from Nogales was joined to the train from Tijuana at Benjamin Hill. This involved being bumped and jerked. Great entertainment for kids. We always had to wait for the train from Tijuana. It was always late, but between the tracks there were puestas that sold the best tacos.

If you buy a frozen turkey in Nogales or Tucson, by the time you get to Guadalajara it will be thawed and ready for the oven.

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The train from Nogales was joined to the train from Tijuana at Benjamin Hill. This involved being bumped and jerked. Great entertainment for kids. We always had to wait for the train from Tijuana. It was always late, but between the tracks there were puestas that sold the best tacos.

If you buy a frozen turkey in Nogales or Tucson, by the time you get to Guadalajara it will be thawed and ready for the oven.

There was a train from TJ many, many decades ago that ran from TJ crossed the border near Campo, Califorina onto Jacumba, Calif. Crossed into the USA via a tunnel. Went along the US side of the border into Plaster City in Imperial County, Calif. and then down the corridor on the desert floor and into Mexicali and also along the desert floor to Yuma, Az.

A storm took out the bridge at Jacumba, Ca. and never was replaced. I don´t know when this happened but would guess in the early to mid 70s.

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That line may have been operated by the copper company. They had their own rail operations back then. My wife's family used to send the kids to Cananea in the summer to get them out of Phoenix's horrible heat. They caught the company train in Naco. There were no passenger cars; everybody rode in the caboose.

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I did it years ago - maybe 30? At the time they bought discarded? Canadian Pacific rail cars - or so I was told. Had a marvelous time - traveling from the Arizona border to Merida in a small sleeper car - over several months.

But I just don't see them spending that kind of money to resurrect right of way, tracks etc. Great idea - but what kind of priority would it have!

No need for right of way tracks in Mexico, mexican railway system is state owned.

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Passenger rail service is no picnic in the US as railroads freight traffic has priority over passenger traffic. You have to remember who owns the rails.

Rail travel is the travel of the past and the future, its economical and ecological, its also very comfortable and one can see the country at the same time. I love train travel and use it when ever possible wherever I go. Love Europe for this, it beats air travel.

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