Riviera Maya, Q. R. — During his Wednesday morning press conference, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) reported that the Maya Train route will have a change in its line through Quintana Roo.
While not disclosing details, AMLO made the comment from the National Palace, asking Quintana Roo hotel businesses for help and patience in creating a new plan. The Maya Train, his government’s flagship project, generated controversy late last year after more than 40 hotels were approached and told they would need to sell a portion of their land to accommodate the Maya Train route.
Businessmen pointed out that hotels were constructed according to their land size and to comply with such a request (to sell land) would leave them in building code non-compliance, not to mention an infrastructure nightmare.
During his January 5 press conference, AMLO made the route-change comment saying “hopefully they will cooperate,” but to what degree, he did not say. What he did say was that the changes will apply in the section of Riviera Maya and that the new route will see the train pass behind hotel complexes and not affect business lands.
On the contrary, he said, “the Maya Train project will be a benefit for the state’s hotel sector. So the faster the line, the better.”
Other changes have been announced in different sections of the Maya Train since it’s original plan. Changes in Campeche and Mérida, for example, were made so that the train no longer runs through the center of those cities.
López Obrador said that the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, will travel to the Mexican southeast to meet with hotel businessmen in the region.