Riding that train…

Everything old is new again. Or, maybe being the last day of 2023, I should say, “Ring out the new, ring in the old”. This year, and in 2024, it’s not new highways that the politicans promise, but railroads… and they’re delivering. 

As early as the 1830s, there were proposals to build rail service, although… between the instability of the government, a few wars, and … well… no investors, nothing happened. In the 1850s, following the US annexation of California, and the gold rush, led to US proposals (i.e. “demands”) for a more secure comunications beween the new Pacific region and the eastern seaboard. Yes, “Manifest Destiny” was pushing the country futher into the interior, but, it didn’t seem possible to build any reliable link between the two “settler state” regions. And those pesky Indians were not about to grant access. On top of which, the British hadn’t quite given up their hopes for warm water ports on the North American Pacific coast. 

Panama was the shortest route, but at the time, it was impossible, and the most popular route, from the east sailing to Nicaragua, getting on Commodore Vanderbuilt’s railway to Lake Nicaragua, crossing the lake on Commodore Vanderbuilt’s steamships, staying in Commodore Vanderbuilt’s hotels, and taking another train (owned by, you know who) to the Pacific, to sail on ships also owned by the oligarch to California, had it’s “national security” problems. 

Alll of which led to the “McLane-Ocampo Treaty of 1859. Although it was hardly the “dirty deal” that Mexican conservatives to this day claim would have given the United States control of the Isthimus of Tehunatepec, which seems to have been in the mind of those Manifesting gringos, it was one of those not quite “free” free trade agreements. Besides all the goods exported and imported from or to California … for which the United States would have just paid Mexico a set fee per year, rather than deal with customs inspections, and duties, it would have allowed the transport of military forces and equipment, a real concern given the influx of not just “pioneers” and prospecters pouring into California, but all manner of rouges, grifters and political radicals. 

HOWEVER, given that the American Civil War was a more pressing issue, the treaty was never ratified, and nothing was ever done. But a trans-ithumus railway project (or, alternatively, a canal… a theoretical project going back to Hernan Cortés) never went away. (more on that here)

Although a short line was built during the Maximilian’s short reign (more as bragging rights for the Austrian, to claim the country was being modernized than for any practical reason), by the 1870s, especially after the US Transcontinental Railroad was completed, there was something of a rail-rush in Mexico. Mainly because the US wanted to exploit Mexican resources, of course.

The trains were a good investment… usually. There was the usual fraud (this was the “Guilded Age” in the United States, after all), with dupes like even Ulyses S. Grant being taken in. Anthony Trollope’s 1875 “The Way We Live Now”… a satiric look at the English aristocracy desperate to maintain their status in a world wealth and privilige was shifting away from those with landed estates to those with financial resources… centers on a stock market fraud involving a bogus Mexican railroad investment. But those that were build were in the hands of US and British investors. 

And… just co-incidentally… involved, as in the United States and Canada in the same era… removing the communities in their way, although in Mexico, these were usually settled agricultural communities, who found their lands given away to investors without their say-so. Something that would come back to haunt the rail-builders

Under ther dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz… who to his credit, or that of his economics team… at least realized that foreign ownership of a national transportation system was not in the national interest, began buying shares of the foreign owned railroads, by the end of his rule consoldating several into the state-run (or, rather, “private-public partnership”) Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México. Which proved to be a convenient tool for the forces that would overthrow his dictatorship, and in the civil war/revolution that resulted. 

As it was, it might have been that those railroads, or railway workers, were key to the Revolution. With the trains running to the United States by design, the railway workers were instrumental in smuggling not just the anti-Porfirian propaganda from exiles in the US, but their leaders (like Franciso Madero who had to flee prison disguised as a brakeman) and, once the fighting broke out, run through the weapons and material needed to keep the revolutionaries in the field And serve as military transport. Most of the major battles between 1910 and 1916 were fights to gain control of the railyards. As commemorated in a 100 peso bill of a few years back:

The revolution did not overthrow EVERYTHING. The Mexican state continued to buy out railroads, and even managed to somehwat expand the service, notably the Copper Canyon Railroad, completed in 1961. 

And, it’s hard to underestimate the railroads’ impact on the population. The Revolutionary road (so to speak) brought more than soldiers and weapons, but teachers, doctors, adminstrators to places along the routes, or reachable from rail stops. For better or worse, “development”. It’s probably impossible to say whether the north industrialized because of the railroads, or that the industries localed along the railroads because of the ease of export. Either way, with the reailroads running (and still running) mostly north …as wikipedia says

… freight and passenger service throughout the country (the majority of the service is freight-oriented), connecting major industrial centers with ports and with rail connections at the United States border.

… Mexico has become mostly a supplier to the United States. 

While likely to remain true for a very long time (though, Mexfiles would favor more trade with other parts of the world and a more balanced export/import scheme), the United States and the ways of the United States have dominated Mexican development plans since at least the late 1940s. This isncles, favoring automobile and truck traffic over rail. And… given the “neo-liberal” mindset of the 1980s until recently, “privatizing” public services. 

Passenger service has been phased out (with the exception of a few tourist lines, and urban lines, there hasn’t been regular passenger service since the 1990s) and Ferrocarriles Nacionales was killed by the Zedillo administration, when the several lines were given as “concessions” to the major US railroads (with one exception, for a southern line controlled by a Mexican corporation). 

Neither of which turned out to be the best way forward. Or, given planetary concerns like a need to lower fossil fuel emissions, not to mention loss of agricultral and forest land to roadways, it turns out old-school 19th century solutions are better suited for 21st century problems. 

Within the past year, we’ve seen TWO major rail projects at least at the test stage… an interurban line between Mexico City and Toluca, the new Mayan Train (mostly still for tourists, but bringing “devlopment” to a long neglected, and railroad-less region), and as of earlier this week, a rebirth of the Trans-Ocieanic corridor. Add to that that those privatized freight tines running to the United States now MUST add passenger service on their lines, under a reborn Ferricarriles de México… and one might say we’re on the right track. 

… as to the Mayan Train (and first long-distance) public rail development project, these kids did a great job, although a few of their remarks, made in an attempt to present “both sides” of an issue, might need a corrective, kindly provided by commentator “violamateo”. 

@violamateo

I’d like to point out just a few things, some of which you’ve touched upon and other which you haven’t:

1) a LARGE part of the opposition to the Tren Maya has come from right-wingers who are itching to get back in power, so anything that López Obrador does (especially in terms of social benefits or infrastructure) is viciously attacked by them.

2) Curiously, nobody’s ever said a word about all the ecological destruction that was done (and continues to be done) in Cancún, Tulum, and Playa del Carmen, due to so much hotel and road construction, water extraction, etc. But now with the Tren Maya, everybody’s an ecologist! It’s important to mention that experts in engineering and archeology were constantly being consulted during the train’s construction.

3) You briefly mentioned the jaguar, and it’s a legitimate concern. But what you failed to mention (even though I imagine you saw some of them) were the so-called “pasos de fauna”, ginormous overhead bridges (totally planted with vegetation) by which the jaguars and other local animals are able to freely cross the train tracks without having any direct contact. They’re not roads, but are ONLY designed for animals to cross. Additionally, they include elevated wire structures so that monkeys can also cross, and there are even provisions being made for bats and other species. There are 547 of these bridges along the entire route, which is more animal crossings than have ever been built in the entire country’s history!

4) The fact that this region has traditionally been one of the country’s poorest means that the Tren Maya is going to bring a big economic boost to the area, not only providing jobs for the locals, but by promoting archeological sites and expanding the hospitality industry as well.

5) Finally, the fact that not every train is going to be jam packed with passengers doesn’t necessarily have to be a negative thing either: The train is scheduled to also carry a great deal of cargo. [… and,, I’d add, this video was only made the secord or third day of operations… give it time to catch on and the kinks to be worked out. Geeze!]