As our train breezed past scrubby jungle toward southern Mexico’s Yucatán state, I strolled to the café car to grab a coffee and a tamale. I was on my way to the colonial-era city of Mérida. Although I’d lived in Mexico for years and had traveled through this area before, I’d never seen it from a train car—nor had most of my fellow travelers. It turned out to be a comfortable vantage from which to view the passing countryside.
Tren Maya
Welcome to the new Tren Maya, or Maya Train, the controversial, 965-mile rail project that’s changing the way travelers get around Mexico’s beloved Yucatán Peninsula. Until last December, when officials inaugurated the first stretch of rail line, the only way to travel between Cancún and Mérida was via a crowded highway or toll road.
Now, locals and visitors alike can travel that route by rail, and by year’s end they’ll be able to traverse 5 states by train: Campeche, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Yucatán. The finished line will have 34 stations, including Tulúm, and will complete a kind of loop around the peninsula.
Eager to get an early taste of the Americas’ newest train system, I rode a completed leg in March between Palenque and Cancún, stopping off to spend nights in Campeche City, Mérida, and Valladolid.
You may also like: Dive in to the Yucatán Peninsula’s otherworldly cenotes
All aboard!
Passengers take a selfie at the Mérida-Teya station. Photo by Koral Carballo/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Most of the riders I met were middle-class Mexicans going on vacation or visiting family members. “This train is so comfortable,” said one of 2 bubbly thirtysomething sisters traveling from Palenque to Cancún. They’d boarded the train at 7 a.m. and wouldn’t arrive until 7 p.m., but they preferred that, they said, to an entire day on the highway. “And we can get up to buy food from the café, so it will be a good trip.”
Outgoing Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made no secret about the rail line being his pet project. He’s wanted it up and running before he leaves office in September. From the development’s inception, however, critics have raised concerns about environmental impacts, including deforestation, and the potential for damage to undiscovered archaeological artifacts.
A hasty referendum on the project in December 2019 passed with just 2.36% voter turnout. As with the new Tulúm International Airport, the construction was rapid and authoritarian, with arguably little opportunity for local feedback or impact studies.
In fact, Mexican travelers I spoke to on board expressed surprise that their journey was even happening. “We thought this would be a typical government project with a lot of talk but years of delays,” said a restaurant owner from Campeche who was taking his family to Mérida for a long weekend. “None of my friends thought the president would finish this project before he left office, but here we are.”
A plaza in the colonial-era city of Mérida. Photo by mehdi33300/stock.adobe.com
Although critics have voiced justifiable concerns about the train’s impact, the project has created many thousands of jobs, and I had no trouble finding enthusiastic Mexicans, including in previously hard-to-reach communities.
When I spoke to Gilberto Tzuc Kauil of Sian Ka’an Tours, a tourism company operating between Tulúm and Chetumal, he predicted the train will bring more visitors to an Indigenous area with few economic opportunities.
“It has been a challenge to convince beach visitors to make the trip to this remote area,” he said. “With better transportation, it will be much easier to market our tours that help the local economy and provide jobs for the people who live here.”
Foreign tourists who are expected to ride the train hadn’t yet materialized when I took my journey. I encountered fewer than a dozen travelers from outside Mexico during my trip. At the time, travelers couldn’t reserve a seat more than a week in advance, which undoubtedly affected bookings. But the reservation system appears to be improving.
I encountered other growing pains: While the train cars were comfortable and my onboard tamale was hot and tasty, the Wi-Fi rarely worked, and some stations were still under construction.
But I also found much to appreciate. The Maya Train is a government-owned entity, and National Guard soldiers keep watch at the stations and check tickets, so safety and order are a priority. The workers were pleasant, and at each station I found an efficient shuttle system that could carry travelers to the city center for a minimal charge.
The Mayan archaeological site of Chichén Itzá. Photo by Aleksandar Todorovic/stock.adobe.com
The Mérida-to-Cancún stretch was already popular, and just as I was finishing my trip, the stretch between Cancún and Playa del Carmen began carrying passengers. Demand will likely grow, especially since the train stops at the Cancún airport and near the archaeological site of Chichén Itzá.
When all the lines are complete, the Maya Train promises to be a terrific way to get around the Yucatán Peninsula.
You may also like: Stunning all-inclusive Mexico resorts you’ll want to visit
If you go
Learn more about the Maya Train—including the 2 seating classes, dining cars, and sleeper compartments. A one-way first-class ticket from the Cancún Aeropuerto station to Mérida—a trip that takes nearly 4 hours—costs about $92 for foreign travelers. A tourist-class ticket costs about $58.
Tim Leffel is a writer, editor, and blogger who lives in Guanajuato, Mexico.
Travel offers & deals
