The Overhead Wire Daily: To Mexico Under Wires

There’s an interesting confluence of events that has emerged around passenger rail in Texas and Mexico over the last year.

Mexico’s previous president Andrés Manuel López Obrador had built around 900 miles of passenger rail and that policy of expansion is something that the new president, Claudia Scheinbaum wishes to continue, however more aligned with her environmental goals.

Her plans include 1,850 miles of 100mph electrified passenger rail including two lines that connect Mexico City with the borders of Arizona and Texas. There are seven lines in her overall policy proposals. (Thx Cap’n) The lines would also be used for freight movement since one of Mexico’s largest exports to the United States is cars, which also puts an interesting twist on the proposed environmental goals.

Map via SntVTC

Not to be outdone, another discussion emerged in the press this week as officials from Texas and Mexico got together to discuss passenger rail between Austin, San Antonio and Monterrey Mexico. The line would be promoted as increasing commerce between the two countries.

But while Mexico’s president has declared that she will push forward with their passenger rail program, Texas Department of Transportation officials and local advocates wonder where the money would come from for a Texas leg.  A nascent proposal for a high speed line between Dallas and Houston sponsored by TXDOT seems to have all the current energy the state and Amtrak can muster and the politics of such a program are likely to get messy given the current state of immigration discussions in the United States.

I’m interested to see how this plays out but I’m also excited that more countries are coming around to a technology that connects places near and far physically and economically. Ultimately it’s an investment in connecting people and that’s always something I can appreciate.