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When I lived in Phoenix in the early 90's, I always wanted to, but never got around to it, take the train from Nogales to points south. From my research, there was still some crude train line from Nogales back then. I now learn it no longer exists.
So aside from the touristy Copper Canyon rail line, is there any plans to resurrect train travel in Mexico?
A train from Tijuana to Cabo would be all too sweet!
Last edited by tijlover; 04-20-2011 at 10:57 PM..
Reason: edit
I doubt it, bus travel is too efficient. Only rail going up in Mexico will be commuter rail and its not exactly on a fast track, pun intended. Besides trains are hideously slow compared even to buses.
Great topic! I first took the Nogales train to Mexico City when I was just 16, and subsequently repeated the same trip several more times. I can't imagine a better way to travel Mexico. The village scenes (including entire villages made from former railroad cars), the magnificent landscapes and extensive plantations, the overwhelming pervasive smells of unknown exotic foods, the antique "sleeper" railroad cars we traveled in – it was all so surreal for this teenager. It was nearly a two-day trip each way. That train route should have been made a national treasure.
My trip through the Copper Canyon (second class) in the mid-'90s was extremely memorable, too. My train was held up by armed bandits on horseback – go figure – it was like being in the Wild West, yet no one was harmed. Seeing those shotgun-carrying bandits chasing alongside the train before stopping it was a truly wild, eye-opening adventure.
I doubt it, bus travel is too efficient. Besides trains are hideously slow compared even to buses.
That is, until you come within a certain distance of the Mexican border from the south, due to the drug checkpoints.
I took the bus from the Guatemala border to Nogales 6-7 years ago, and I painfully remember all the drug checkpoints I went thru en route, stopping the bus, getting off, inspection of the luggage, etc. Very time consuming!
I doubt it because as long as the drug war is going on, the drug cartels would constantly kidnap, hold the workers building the tracks for ransom then behead and mutilate them. I wish I was putting hyperbole into this.
There's no way the rail can become a valid transport system in Mexico, the companies are only interested in gain the major amount of money and that is just made by serving exclusive to industrie.
As somebody alluded to above, bus travel in Mexico is way too efficient for trains to ever get a hold on the market again. And now with all of the discount airlines...
Well that's about all that will be built. Not to mention every time there was an earthquake it would devastate the trains. Pretty much why they don't exist for anything but cargo anywhere in Central America either.
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