Mexico actually does have passenger trains, though for decades the premise of this question was essentially true. From the late 1990s until very recently, Mexico had virtually no intercity passenger rail service, making it an outlier among major economies. The country privatized its rail network in the mid-1990s, handing operations to freight companies, and passenger service quietly disappeared. That’s now changing fast, with billions of dollars flowing into new rail projects and a legal framework forcing the issue.
How Mexico Lost Its Passenger Trains
Mexico had a functioning national passenger rail system for most of the 20th century. The government-owned Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México connected major cities, and millions of people rode trains between them. But by the 1980s and 1990s, the system was badly underfunded, slow, and losing money. Highways and cheap bus travel had drawn riders away, and the government saw rail as a financial burden.
In 1995, Mexico privatized its railways. The new concession holders were freight companies with no obligation or incentive to run passenger service. Freight rail is far more profitable per kilometer of track than passenger service, and the private operators had no interest in sharing capacity with slower passenger trains. By 1999, nearly all intercity passenger routes had been eliminated. The only survivors were a handful of tourist-oriented trains like the Chepe line through the Copper Canyon.
This wasn’t inevitable. Other countries that privatized rail, like Japan and the UK, maintained passenger obligations. Mexico simply didn’t require it. The concession terms let freight operators treat the tracks as their own, and no government in the following two decades pushed to change that.
Why Buses Filled the Gap
Mexico’s long-distance bus network is extensive, comfortable, and relatively affordable. Companies operate luxury coaches with reclining seats, onboard entertainment, and frequent departures between major cities. For most Mexicans, bus travel works well enough that the absence of trains became something people lived with rather than protested. The government, meanwhile, poured its infrastructure budget into highways. Road building served both the bus industry and the trucking industry, creating a self-reinforcing cycle where rail investment seemed unnecessary.
Geography played a role too. Mexico’s mountainous terrain makes rail construction expensive, and the population is spread across a wide country with a few dominant metro areas rather than the dense corridor patterns that make rail economics work well in places like Europe or Japan’s Tokyo-Osaka route.
The 2023 Decree That Changed the Rules
In November 2023, President López Obrador signed a decree that fundamentally shifted the legal landscape. The decree states that on all railway routes under concession, passenger service now takes priority over freight. Freight companies were given until January 2024 to submit proposals explaining how their tracks could be adapted to carry passengers. If the companies refused, the government reserved the right to operate passenger service itself, and the decree also opened the door for other companies to provide passenger rail on concessioned tracks.
This was a direct challenge to the freight operators who had controlled Mexico’s rail lines for nearly three decades. The decree preserved existing freight concession rights but made clear that the tracks could no longer be treated as freight-only infrastructure.
New Rail Projects Already Running
The most visible sign of change is the Tren Maya, a 1,554-kilometer railway looping through the Yucatán Peninsula. Construction began in 2020, the first segment opened in December 2023, and the final stretch from Escárcega to Chetumal began operating in December 2024. The system runs 42 trains with capacity for up to three million passengers per year, connecting inland towns to coastal tourist hubs that previously captured nearly all visitor spending. The fleet includes standard trains seating 230 to 430 passengers, restaurant cars, and long-distance sleeper-style trains.
Other projects are in various stages. A rail line connecting Mexico City to Toluca is under construction. The government has budgeted roughly 133 billion pesos (about €6.24 billion) for railway infrastructure in 2025 alone, covering completion of existing projects and the launch of new ones, including a Mexico City to Querétaro line and a connection between Felipe Ángeles International Airport and Pachuca. That budget is split between the transportation ministry, which receives 70% of the funds, and the military, which oversees construction of projects like the Tren Maya.
Not every project has gone smoothly. A new passenger service across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, connecting the Pacific and Gulf coasts, ran test operations in December 2024 but was shut down after a fatal derailment on December 28 that killed 14 people. Both lines on that route remained closed afterward with no timeline for reopening.
What’s Different This Time
Mexico has talked about reviving passenger rail before without following through. What makes the current moment different is the combination of legal authority (the 2023 decree), committed federal spending at a scale the country hasn’t directed toward rail in decades, and completed projects that are already carrying passengers. The Tren Maya alone represents the largest rail construction project in Mexico since the original national network was built.
The deeper question is whether this momentum survives political transitions and whether the economics work. Passenger rail requires ongoing subsidies in nearly every country that operates it. Mexico’s bus industry remains a powerful competitor with low fares and established routes. And building rail through mountainous central Mexico is a different engineering challenge than laying track across the flat Yucatán. The country is no longer a place with zero passenger trains, but whether it becomes a country where trains are a routine way to travel between major cities is still an open question.