LatinNews Daily - 17 January 2024

*Mexico’s transport ministry (SICT) has announced it has received five proposals from parties interested in participating in the roll-out of passenger railway services. In November, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador published a decree declaring the provision of passenger rail services in Mexico a “priority area for national development” and calling for freight rail operators with existing concessions in Mexico to present projects for implementing passenger rail services to the SICT by 15 January. The SICT stated it would now revise the proposals and carry out relevant evaluation studies. In its statement the SICT said that the objective of the proposals was to “make the capacity of the current rail network more efficient, define and propose compatibility of railway equipment, and determine an implementation schedule that considers various phases (local and long-haul routes).” Although the SICT did not identify which companies had expressed interest, Canada’s Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) told newswire Reuters that it had filed a proposal. CPKC and the local Grupo México Transportes (a subsidiary of conglomerate Grupo México that has two railway companies, Ferromex and Ferrosur) currently operate the majority of Mexico’s railroads.