The project, with an investment of EUR 2.2 billion, will allow building a train to decongest the Mexico-Toluca highway. It will have six stations and its completion is scheduled towards the end of 2017. The project is framed within the Government’s National Plan for Infrastructure. Once operational, it will provide service to over 300,000 passengers a day, thus demand is expected to increase bringing the daily number of passengers up to 500,000 by the year 2047.
Along with the train to Queretaro, this project will help decongest the main roads, in addition to being a service providing better quality of life because it will reduce travel time between cities, benefiting thousands of users that take the route daily and, at the same time, it will improve access to the Western area of Mexico City. Sener, member of Mafex, is in charge of the construction of the train, and performs all the tasks required for the definition of the project’s execution, as well as the commissioning of the complete line.
The project (Tren Interurbano de Pasajeros Toluca-Valle de México) has two main objectives, first, improving and, above all, keeping in optimal service levels for at least 700,000 passengers registered within the corridor under a study that was carried out during 2012. Moreover, this train will be a regional and urban transport backbone, allowing the organisation and optimisation of transport in urban and rural areas contained therein.
The mountainous terrain and environmental conditions in which this network is being built present a major challenge; the result is a design where 92% of the track is either in tunnels or on viaducts. Altogether, the 57.8 kilometers of the commuter rail route comprises almost 49 kilometers of viaducts and a 4.7 kilometers twin tunnel with cross-tunnel connections every 240 meters.
The trains are designed to run with a maximum speed of 160 km/h on European standard gauge, of 1435 mm. Besides, it will have a ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) Level 2 signalling system and an additional Assistance To Operation (ATO) system. The line is exclusively dedicated to rail passenger traffic. The line will have six stations: Zinacantepec, Terminal de Autobuses, Metepec, Lerma, Santa Fe, and Observatorio — all of them at viaducts.
The consortium formed by CAF, Thales, members of Mafex, Isolux Corsán, and Azvi were selected as the contractor for the construction of the intercity rail line linking Mexico and Toluca for a total amount of EUR 690 million. CAF will supply 30 trainsets, consisting of 5 cars each, with an approximate capacity of 700 passengers. The trains will have a bright interior and hall intercommunication between cars, including spaces for people with reduced mobility.
The new project is a good sign for the revival of rail transport in Mexico, escpecially for rail passenger transport as in the last years Mexico concentrated somehow on rail freight transport and logistics. Rail transport in Mexico was underdeveloped because the state-owned railroad company, Nacionales de México, stopped investing in it in the years just before privatisation, in 1995. When the private sector took over, the new rail operators started improving the network and heavily marketing their services. Although, plenty of opportunities remains to be covered for rail transport as the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, announced a planned investment of USD 586 billion in all infrastructure projects until 2018.
This article was published in the June issue of the Railway PRO Magazine that analyses the latest and most important railway projects around the world.
by Elena Ilie
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