Mexico City, Mexico — The inauguration of the Interoceanic Train of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec will be toward the end of December announced President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
He made the announcement during a weekend progress tour. He said the new communication route will boost international trade by uniting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, which means a new alternative to the Panama Canal.
“Now that our brothers from Panama have some difficulty due to lack of water in the canal, of course they are going to move forward, they are going to solve that obstacle, but there is a lot of saturation in the Panama Canal,” he said.
In the company of the Secretary of the Navy, José Rafael Ojeda Durán, López Obrador recalled that this train is part of the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, an initiative of the Government of Mexico that contemplates the creation of development poles or industrial parks, which will be sources of well paid empolyment in the region.
“In this entire strip of the Isthmus there are industrial parks, development poles, around 300 hectares per industrial park and companies and assembly plants will be established and there will be employment, a lot of work,” he stated.
López Obrador reaffirmed that the Interoceanic Train symbolizes the return of passenger trains after their privatization during the neoliberal period. In addition, he said, it will generate conditions in favor of the population of Veracruz and Oaxaca.
“This is a project that has a great future, which is not only bringing joy to people because it is nostalgic, which is returning the passenger railway, but it also means progress,” he said adding that the inauguration date will be December 22.
In September, the General Director of the Maya Train company, Óscar David Lozano Águila, announced that Maya Train section 1 will connect with the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
