- Environment Minister Alicia Bárcena said the government is considering ways to correct some of the damage done by Tren Maya to cenotes and rainforests in the Yucatán peninsula.
- Officials want to remove fencing along the tracks, create new protected areas and ban the construction of additional roads connecting the train with harder-to-reach tourism activities in rainforests.
- At the same time, the government plans to expand the Tren Maya route and build several other trains across the country that could threaten protected areas.
MEXICO CITY — Officials have acknowledged the environmental damage caused by Tren Maya, and say they’re exploring ways to restore cenotes and rainforests disrupted by the railway’s construction through the Yucatán peninsula.
During a press event earlier this month, Environment Minister Alicia Bárcena said the government was looking at correcting some of the damage done by the train like deforestation of protected areas and breaking through cave walls.
“The restoration required for a project like Tren Maya is so comprehensive that reforestation is essential,” Bárcena said during the meeting. “The communities themselves can be the ones to help us restore the forest ecosystem, instead of hiring the consortiums involved in Tren Maya — companies that come, plant a tree, and it dies the next day.”
The multi-million-dollar train project stretching 1,554 kilometers (966 miles) across five states became a national controversy when it relocated local communities, drove pillars through sensitive cave ecosystems and cut into the protected rainforest of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve — often without permits.
The project caused an estimated 6,659 hectares (16,455 acres) of forest loss, one research group found.
Now that construction is largely finished, officials with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) reportedly want to remove fencing along the tracks, which prevents wildlife crossings. They also want to ban the construction of additional roads that would connect the train with harder-to-reach tourism activities in rainforests.
Roadbuilding could increase deforestation and invite further tourism development in an already fragile ecosystem, critics have pointed out.
Undersecretary of Biodiversity and Environmental Restoration Marina Robles García is reportedly looking at granting biosphere reserve status to caves and cenotes in Quintana Roo. Large metal pillars that support the train line were inserted into caves along line five, whose construction was retroactively halted by a court earlier this year.
Semarnat officials are reportedly visiting communities along the train line to determine how they can be compensated for damages and land use change.
“I think a restoration process is necessary,” Bárcena told a local radio show in Mexico last year, ahead of a change in government. “I want environmental groups to work together…to help us understand what was done, what environmental impact assessments were carried out.”
Tren Maya was a flagship project for former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and some critics worried his successor and protégé, President Claudia Sheinbaum, would continue his initiatives without addressing their flaws.
But activists opposing the railway say officials in the new government, which took power in October 2024, have been open to making changes.
“They listened, they came, they saw with their own eyes,” Jose Urbina, an environmental activist fighting Tren Maya, told Mongabay. “We walked with them in the jungle, we took them to see the contamination, to see the damage — and they understood.”
At the same time, the Sheinbaum government is planning to expand Tren Maya to include 10 cargo hubs and 70 kilometers (44 miles) of railroad to the port of Progreso, outside of Mérida. It’s also exploring an expansion into Guatemala, despite concern in the country that it will destroy the Maya Biosphere Reserve.
The Mexican government is working on several other train projects connecting Mexico City to Pachuca and Querétaro, as well as another train traveling between Saltillo and Nuevo Laredo. This year, officials hope to add 774 kilometers (481 miles) of rail lines across the country.
Urbina said activists aren’t against future train construction if it’s done legally and with the proper environmental studies.
“If they respect the law, they respect the environment, please be my guest,” he said. “But if they need to break the law, insult and endanger people who are raising their voices — then it doesn’t matter if it’s a train or a highway. It’s wrong.”
Banner image: One of Tren Maya’s train cars. Photo courtesy of Secretariat of National Defense.
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