AMLO expands plan for Yucatan tourist train

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had campaigned on building the tourist train from the beach resort city of Cancun down through Tulum and to the Mayan ruins of Palenque, 520 miles (830 kilometers) to the southwest.

The new plan adds a western spur that could stop in the cities of Campeche, Merida and Valladolid — the latter near the famed ruins of Chichen Itza — and ultimately complete the circuit in Cancun.

Lopez Obrador said the “Mayan train” would cost between $6 billion and $8 billion, compared with the previous figure of $3.2 billion. He said it would be financed over six years through both public and private investment, including tourism taxes that currently net about $370 million a year.

What was to be 560 miles (900 kilometers) of track would rise to about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers), and would be completed in four years “at the latest,” he said. Most of the route lies on land already owned by the federal government.

“This will greatly stimulate tourism and will create jobs in the southeast, which is the most neglected region of the country,” Lopez Obrador said.

The announcement amounted to a doubling down on a campaign proposal that had left some scratching their heads, and perhaps improving its viability by extending it along a well-traveled tourist route.

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Source: Miami Herald