Maya Train’s Connectivity Issues Force Passengers to Buses

Mérida, Yucatán — Passengers of the Maya Train are frequently forced to complete their journeys using combi vans and buses due to poor connectivity between stations and key tourist and employment centers. This summer near-empty stations were found, and widespread complaints that the train service fails to integrate effectively with local transport networks, undermining its stated goal of uniting communities and bolstering tourism in regions like Quintana Roo, which is currently facing a severe hotel occupancy crisis.

A Promise Unfulfilled

Operating on a sometimes full, sometimes nearly empty schedule, the Maya Train runs on tracks embedded through a fractured jungle. It has yet to become the transformative project promised by the federal government, known as the 4T, to connect communities and support tourist destinations.

In the country’s largest tourist corridor between Cancún and Playa del Carmen, the train departs punctually on three schedules during the summer vacation period. However, hoteliers report that occupancy percentages are falling daily, creating a stark contrast to the massive investment in the rail project.

This situation occurred the weekend preceding an incident at the Izamal station on Tuesday, August 19, which General Óscar David Lozano Águila, director of the Maya Train, insists was not a derailment.

Empty Stations and Inaccessible Destinations

The train’s whistle sounds and its lights activate upon arriving at each station, yet it does not effectively serve the heart of the Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen, or Cancún. The journey between these two points takes just under an hour, but the stations are not located near tourist attractions or major employment zones.

There is no special schedule for workers, as initially promised, nor is the service economically accessible for the majority of the population. For example, a traditional cochinita pibil torta, one of the most affordable dishes in the Yucatán peninsula, is sold onboard for 130 pesos—nearly triple the standard price.

The station in Nuevo Xcán, a Mayan community near Cancún and the Riviera Maya with 5,782 inhabitants, goes unnoticed. During the summer, no one was observed boarding or alighting there. Residents prefer to use combi vans to travel to and from the area, which is a gateway to the popular tourist island of Holbox.

For travel from Playa del Carmen to Mérida, the train only offered one direct nighttime route this summer, which was impractical due to a lack of connectivity between the Mérida station and the city’s historic center. The promised travel time for this route is four hours and 24 minutes.

During the day, the only option is to transfer in Cancún across five schedules, a journey that can take up to six hours. Reporters confirmed this on August 13, 16, and 17, finding that the train takes nearly twice as long as the ADO buses, which remain the most demanded transport in the region.

Stations at Cancún Airport and Playa del Carmen remain empty for hours each day, nearly abandoned amidst commercial spaces that have remained unrented since they were established nearly a year and a half ago. Workers at the few open businesses express concern that without more customers, their jobs will disappear.

The Connectivity Problem

At 9:00 p.m. on August 16 outside the Mérida Teya station, passengers who had boarded the train in Playa del Carmen at 2:20 p.m. with a transfer in Cancún found that alternate transportation was almost nonexistent. The IE-Tram electric bus service, which departs at 10:00 p.m., meant passengers would spend over eight hours traveling to reach Mérida’s historic center.

Chichén Itzá: Total Abandonment

The train departed punctually at 9:18 a.m. from Mérida to Playa del Carmen on another day, making a stop at the Chichén Itzá station after passing through Izamal approximately 50 hours before the incident there.

The Chichén Itzá station was deserted, showing no signs of the 1,502,319 passengers who have ridden the Maya Train since operations began—a figure touted by President Claudia Sheinbaum during a visit to Chetumal on August 15.

Workers lamented the station’s distance from the Chichén Itzá archaeological site, the most visited in Mexico with over 2.2 million visitors last year according to the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). The station remains in a raw construction state, with unfinished walls, unpacked waiting area benches, recently installed ticket turnstiles, and a small shop selling only souvenirs, Coca-Cola, and instant soups.

A worker shouted to call passengers continuing to Cancún. There is no designated disembarkation area as it is still under construction. Passengers descended in groups via an elevator. Shortly after 1:30 p.m., the train departed with the cracking sounds of the tracks. A train employee asked about passengers transferring in Cancún to continue to Playa del Carmen; there were few.

Low Hotel Occupancy and Military Management

Toni Chaves, president of the Riviera Maya Hotels Association, acknowledged that the project has not matured as expected and expressed confidence that the military would conduct adequate promotion to meet goals.

“It’s an issue managed by the military; they are doing some promotions, but it’s also complicated for a train to be a success in its first year,” Chaves stated.

In northern Quintana Roo, where sections 4 and 5 of the Maya Train are located, there are over 125,000 hotel rooms in the country’s largest tourist corridor. However, occupancy has recently been below 59% and is expected to continue falling.

“We have to take advantage of it, not just criticize it,” Chaves concluded, “but see how we can leverage it so that it helps tourists move around the state and get to know other regions.”

Derailments and Theft

The first officially recognized Maya Train derailment occurred in March 2024 when the train’s fourth car came off the tracks upon entering the station in Tixkokob. There were no injuries. Another incident happened on August 19 in Izamal, Yucatán.

These incidents add to reports of thefts that have occurred during the project. On the Wednesday, August 13 journey, a National Guard officer assigned to the Teya station recalled that during the construction of Section 5 in Quintana Roo, they constantly received reports of material theft.

“Armed groups would show up, cut through fences, threaten workers, and take materials. Sometimes just the stone,” the officer relayed. When asked if these were organized crime groups, the young guard affirmed they were and noted that Yucatán does not have such problems.

On January 29, 2025, a freight train carrying material for the Maya Train works derailed between the Limones and Bacalar stations in Quintana Roo. The Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) ruled out an attempted robbery, though some reports suggested otherwise.

A Journey Through the Jungle

Some passengers board the train expecting spectacular landscapes. However, routes like Mérida to San Francisco, Campeche, offer views of nothing but trees—some standing, others felled—cars, asphalt, and fencing to keep regional wildlife off the tracks.

This was the case for a woman in her 50s who commented that she first used the Maya Train expecting to see Mayan vestiges. She was traveling to Escárcega, Campeche, a journey of approximately four and a half hours. To reach the Teya station, she paid 150 pesos for an Uber because other options did not fit her schedule.

One alternative is the IE-TRAM, inaugurated on December 15, 2023. A ticket costs 45 pesos for tourists and 14 pesos for locals using a ‘Va y Ven’ transit card. Students and seniors pay 5 pesos. The problem is the wait time; the first departure is at 5:30 a.m. and the last at 8:05 p.m., with a scheduled travel time of 35 minutes from Paseo 60, but requiring a two-hour wait to board.

The woman bound for Escárcega paid 461.50 pesos for a special tourist class ticket using her voter ID card. The price difference with an ADO bus ticket is minimal—only 8.50 pesos for the regular fare. A significant inconvenience, she confessed, is that upon arriving in Escárcega, she must find a taxi or mototaxi to get to her house.

For a young biology student from the State of Mexico, the train became an option after she adopted a dog. The ADO bus requires pets to be anesthetized, whereas the Maya Train only requires a liability waiver. The trade-off is a longer travel time from the Mérida airport to the train station, but her pet travels safely.

Upon arrival at the San Francisco Campeche station, passengers can board the Light Train, which began operating in July. The fare is 18 pesos. The problem is that this transport is coordinated with the Maya Train’s schedule, so if a passenger is delayed, they may have to wait up to two hours for the next departure. The Light Train took 15 months to launch at a cost of 4.2 billion pesos. Its 14 stops are functional for most of the population, though it was criticized for being designed solely for Maya Train passengers, not the citizens of Campeche.

The federal government has invested 470,428 million pesos in the Maya Train to date, nearly 100 times the annual budget of the municipality of Playa del Carmen.