Playa del Carmen, Q.R. — As part of their ongoing adjustments, another change to the Maya Train route has been announced. While the agency contemplates the proposed alternate routes that were recently presented by a group of Riviera Maya businessmen, Fonatur says an alternate highway will be built.
Rogelio Jiménez Pons, general director of Fonatur says to improve traffic flow during the course of construction, a highway from the Cancun airport to just before Playa del Carmen will be built.
He said the new highway will run from the exit of the Cancun International Airport to 10 kilometers before Playa del Carmen. The alternate highway will be constructed in the same section where the railroad will now run parallel to the Federal 307 highway, and not in the central median as originally planned.
From Cancun up to that 10-kilometer point before Playa del Carmen, the train track will run at ground level, not elevated as previously anticipated. He said the current plan will see the track, from that point until the end of Playa del Carmen, around Liverpool, be elevated over the city.
From there, the track will again run at ground level, this time through the central highway ridge all the way to Tulum.
During his announcement, Jiménez Pons also made reference to the recent letter sent by Riviera Maya businessmen who requested a change to the Playa del Carmen route. Since sending it, the Association publicly recognized President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for having “responded to the request” to modify the layout of that section.
Jiménez Pons pointed out that the decision to modify the layout was due to technical and budgetary needs, not so much as to make an agreement with hotel businessmen.
Luis Alegre Salazar, representative of the president in Quintana Roo for the Maya Train project said that Fonatur is analyzing the proposal submitted by the businessmen that could see the Maya Train divert the center of the federal highway through a peripheral road.
He said that some changes have already been made along the route due to population, economic and/or technical needs, which he considered positive, since details that arise in the field are being taken into account.