Good morning. Good morning. How are you? Well, well too. Well, thank you very much. Good morning. Today, Wednesday, September 22nd, 23rd, we are going to give the report on trains. For this, we have with us the Secretary of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation, Jesús Esteba; the head of the Agency for Trains and Integrated Public Transportation, Andrés Layuz; General Gustavo Ricardo Vallejo Suárez, commander of the Felipe Ángeles Engineers Group of the Ministry of National Defense; and Master Néstor Núñez, who is head of the institutional liaison and heritage unit of the secretariat. And at the close of the conference, Miguel Elorza with the lie detector. As you know, with the transformation came the rescue of passenger trains. We are going to give a report on the progress of three routes. The first, Mexico City to Pachuca. The second, Mexico City to Nuevo Laredo, and the third, Mexico City to Guadalajara. So, for this, we are going to give the floor first to Andrés, then to General Vallejo, and then to tell us how we are acquiring the right of way where the train will pass, which is a very intense work and of much social consensus and work with the communities, Néstor Núñez will tell us. So, go ahead.
I'm going to go over there, President. With your permission, President. Good morning to all. Go ahead, please. As the President was saying, we are in a process of recovering passenger trains. With the new train projects, regions, cities, and communities where 41 million people live will be connected. We are talking about the great metropolitan areas of our country, and that is why there will be services within metropolitan areas and between metropolitan areas, at the same time that 10 states are being reconnected with localities that had been disconnected following the train privatization process in the 1990s. This means that for people who make trips within metropolitan areas and between metropolitan areas, we are calculating an average reduction of 40% in travel time for their current trips to work, to their university, to their school, or other activities. Around 220,000 people will be using this network daily, and this also implies a reduction of 360,000 tons of CO2 per year, reducing emissions by 50% compared to trips by plane, bus, or private vehicles. Remember that trains are a mass transportation alternative, and this also has consequences in terms of the congestion we have on our highways today, and particularly the congestion we have on the highway access routes of the big cities. Next slide, please.
What are the characteristics of this train network? First, they are dedicated tracks, exclusive tracks for passenger trains, where we are using the existing right of way alongside the right of way that the freight tracks already had. As you can see in the photos, the design speeds range from 160 to 200 km/h. In the case of the Mexico City to Pachuca train, they are electric trains, taking advantage of the fact that we already have a catenary that goes to the Felipe Ángeles airport from Mexico City, and the rest of the network will be diesel-electric trains, as well as the European train control system, which is the most modern one available at the moment. We will have high, medium, and low demand stations. High demand for cities like Monterrey or Guadalajara, and low demand for places like Huehuetoca or Lampazos, for example. The services will have different characteristics. There are regional services, that's why I was telling you, within metropolitan areas, such as San Juan del Río, Celaya, and between metropolitan areas such as Mexico City, Guadalajara. Next slide, please.
What have we accomplished so far? And I will give you more details right now. We already have two train services in operation this year, which is the Santa Fe Observatorio connection of the Tren El Insurgente, which is the Tren Interurbano México-Toluca. Also the Felipe Ángeles train that goes from Buenavista to the Felipe Ángeles International Airport, and we already have basically 50% of the central and northern Mexico train project under construction, which are 787 km in total from AIFA, Pachuca, Mexico City, Querétaro, Querétaro, Irapuato, and Saltillo, Nuevo Laredo. And we also started construction this year of Irapuato to Guadalajara and Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Saltillo, which are another 810 km, giving us a total of around 16 km. Next slide, please.
It is important, and right now General Vallejo will report more. With the Felipe Ángeles Engineers Group, we work every day, but in particular they are doing the direct construction of the Mexico City to Querétaro train, from the AIFA to Pachuca, and they will also start Irapuato, Guadalajara. Next slide, please.
Regarding the Tren El Insurgente, starting in February of this year, the connection was made from the Toluca metropolitan area to Observatorio by opening the Vasco de Quiroga and Observatorio stations. This meant that for 51,000 people daily, there is a reduction in travel time from 2 hours to 45 minutes. Even now in the summer, during the dates we had matches, attendance reached 70,000 people in a single day. And in total, in 2026, until August, that is, we are talking from February to August, 26.2 million people have traveled on the Toluca train. In the case of the Felipe Ángeles train, operations began at the end of April of this same year with six stations that connect the Mexico Valley metropolitan area with the central area of Mexico City, but also with the Felipe Ángeles International Airport. On 22 km of track, around 35,000 people are moving daily, with a time savings from an hour and a half to 50 minutes, and since its opening, 41.1 million users have traveled. Next slide, please.
Now, the sections under construction, these are the sections where the construction is being carried out by the agency through the tenders that were made since last year. In the Querétaro-Irapuato section, the project investment is 47,000 million pesos for a 108 km section, and the physical progress is 22.26%. The average number of users we will have in this section, which is essentially a metropolitan area in the Bajío, is around 33,000 passengers per day, with travel times that will be reduced by half, and we will have trips of around 30 minutes between these cities, which are currently mostly made by bus. There are five stations: El Grande, Celaya, Cortázar, Salamanca, and Irapuato. Evidently, on one side it will connect to Querétaro, which is the work being done by the Engineers Group, and on the other side it will connect towards León, Guadalajara, etc. Next slide, please.
In the case of the Saltillo to Nuevo Laredo section, this is a much longer section, it is 396 km with a project investment of 140,000 million pesos. The physical progress is almost 10%. The number of users we expect to have in this area is also around 30,000 people, and what this connection does is reduce travel times for the Saltillo metropolitan area itself, which connects Derramadero, Saltillo, Ramos Arispe, but also the connection with the Monterrey metropolitan area, which in turn connects the southern entrance with the northern exit. For this, there are 13 stations in this section: Derramadero, Saltillo, Ramos Arispe, García, Santa Catarina, González Garza, Centro de Monterrey, General Escobedo, Salinas Victoria, Villaldama, Lampazos de Naranjo, Anáhuac, and arriving at Nuevo Laredo. The goal is also to substantially reduce travel times. Just to give you an example, from Derramadero to Ramos Arispe it normally takes about 45 minutes. Now by train it will be 15 minutes. Also within Monterrey we will have trips of around 30 minutes. And one of the special characteristics of this section, which does have greater complexity, is that around 40 km will be on viaducts, especially in the central area of Monterrey. Next slide, please.
Regarding the manufacturing of the trains, in the case of the AIFA-Pachuca, there are 15 electric trains with very similar characteristics to what you can see today of the train that goes to the Felipe Ángeles International Airport. Today we already have a one-to-one scale model at Buenavista that anyone can get on, and we know that people are getting on it and are very happy. This is the model. But also on September 15th, the first car of the first train arrived in Manzanillo. These trains will have a capacity of 893 passengers, and we will have the second train arriving a few weeks later, and starting with the third train, most of its manufacturing will be in Mexico City. In the case of the northern trains, there are 47 diesel-electric trains, we will have the first train in June 2027. Those are manufactured in Ciudad Sagrada, they are from the Alstom company. We have two configurations for those trains. Short-itinerary trains, 632 passengers, what I was saying about trips within metropolitan areas, and 271 passengers in the long-itinerary trains for those who make trips between metropolitan areas. Next slide, please.
This year we will finish tendering all the sections that take us to the goal of 1600 km. So, here are the dates, in fact, tenders have already been published and we are in processes to issue awards in Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, which are 237 km. Next slide, please.
The same for the San Luis Potosí-Saltillo section, which is 334 km. We also already have the processes open. Next slide, please.
And we have also opened the processes for the signaling and control systems of the same sections and 52 additional trains for Querétaro-Saltillo and Irapuato-Guadalajara. All this work, as you know, we do together with many institutions of the Mexican government, particularly Defense, Sedatu, Conagua, INA, and SEMARNAT. Go ahead.
That's it. Thank you very much. Thank you, President. Thank you. Go ahead, General.
Gustavo Ricardo Vallejo Suárez
13:20 ↗
With your permission, Madam President. Good morning to all. Within the framework of the commitments of the Mexican government for the construction of the new passenger rail lines towards the north of the country, Defense continues to participate in the planning, execution, and construction of this railway infrastructure in coordination with the Trains Agency, as already mentioned. We have developed 800 km of basic engineering that correspond to the first four sections of the first stage, which we have already said on repeated occasions. The track that goes from Mexico City to Pachuca, from Mexico City to Querétaro, which is under the charge of Army engineers, and the track that goes from Irapuato, from Querétaro to Irapuato, and from Saltillo to Nuevo Laredo, which are under the charge of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation through the agency and are under public tender. Regarding the second stage of basic engineering, we are already on it. It is the basic engineering that goes from Irapuato, the tracks that go from Irapuato to Guadalajara, from Querétaro to San Luis Potosí, and from San Luis Potosí to Saltillo. Likewise, we are developing basic engineering for the Mazatlán-Los Mochis section. Regarding the Irapuato-Guadalajara section, this will be carried out under the charge of the Ministry of National Defense. It is important to mention that we expect to start construction at the end of this year, prior to the socialization of the project by our colleagues from SICT and Sedatu, but we are already ready because there is an important definition and validation of the route, location of stations, and other buildings that make up this complex.
Similarly, within the commitments of the Mexican government is the construction of the freight service infrastructure in the southeast of the country, which already presents significant progress by the Corps of Engineers. We are going to talk about the Mexico City-Pachuca railway. Regarding this track, we have a progress of 45%. We have said that it is a double, electrified, and confined track, that is, we are joining 58 km of territory between the capital of Mexico City and the capital of the state of Hidalgo, with a construction effort of 121 km of new passenger tracks and rectifications to the freight track, as Master Layuz mentioned, we share the right of way and on occasions we will have to move the freight track a bit to accommodate the new passenger tracks. They are not mixed. They are not shared, each service has its own track. In total, we have here a budget of 47,272 million pesos of investment spending. This infrastructure requires an additional construction effort of 10 km of elevated track in four viaducts that are already under execution. This section, as already mentioned, has four stations, four stops, two electrical substations, a day maintenance base, and a workshop and depot complex that are all under construction. And due to the large number of primary and secondary roads, we are going to build a high number of vehicular, pedestrian, livestock crossings, and transverse energy works, especially on the plain that goes from Tezayuca to Pachuca. Currently we have 10 work fronts working simultaneously. Five are civil works, two are energization, one is catenary, signaling and control, and two more are technical studies. Today, today we have on payroll 8,800 workers working on this section, of which 100 are women, 21% of the workforce, and we have deployed 100 units of rolling stock and machinery right now at this moment. Regarding the Mexico City-Querétaro railway, we have a progress of 31%. It is a double railway that connects 232 km of territory between Mexico City and the Querétaro capital. The track will also be confined for the higher speed movement of passenger trains. It will also unite populations in the State of Mexico and the state of Hidalgo along its trajectory. In total, the construction effort is 545 km of new passenger tracks and rectifications to the freight track, as I already mentioned to you, over the current right of way. For this, we have an investment spending of 143,435 million pesos. Due to the geographical and urban conditions of this railway corridor, we are also going to build, as already mentioned, another 33 km of elevated track supported on viaducts. And the project also has six passenger stations, two auxiliary railway maintenance zones, a track maintenance base, and a workshop and depot complex. All of this has already started its construction as well. Similarly, we have a large number of bridges, vehicular, pedestrian, livestock crossings, and atalayas, most of which are already being executed. It is important to mention that we have 14 construction fronts and all of them are active. We have 12 civil works construction fronts and two technical studies, and we have a workforce deployed here today of more than 18,200 workers, of which 3,000 are women. This represents 17% of our workforce. And we have deployed in these 200, in these 232 km, 3,900 units of heavy machinery and rolling stock in construction work. 247, as far as freight train traffic allows. Regarding the development of infrastructure, of basic engineering development, we have a progress in what refers to the second stage, a progress of 64%. Between Defense and the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation through its agency, we are jointly developing these engineering works in the corridors that go from Querétaro to Irapuato, which we will build through the Ministry of National Defense, from San Luis Potosí to Saltillo, from Irapuato to Guadalajara, and from Mazatlán to Los Mochis. In total, they represent another 1,321 km of new railway routes, and we have for these studies a budget of around 3,000 million pesos that are being responsibly exercised. It is important to tell you again that this methodology allows us to homologate technical criteria and verify that the studies we are doing are carried out under a unified criterion of the Mexican State, that is, with a comprehensive evaluation that allows finding the most viable alternatives for each project, not only from the technical and economic points of view, but also social and environmental. The works are being carried out simultaneously in the four construction sections. We have here more than 1,750 deployed, of which 500 are women. Here 30% of the technical workforce are women, and they are deployed throughout the length and breadth of our country in urban areas, industrial corridors, plains, coastal plains, desert plains, protected environmental areas, everywhere we are advancing in the development of this basic engineering, but as I mentioned at the beginning, next slide, please, we are also building railway freight infrastructure in the southeast of the country. With a progress of 67%, Defense is building the infrastructure of the railway freight service in the southeast of the country, in order to strengthen economic development and peninsular logistics, reducing the costs of moving goods with a more efficient, less polluting, and evidently mass transportation. In the first stage of construction, we have mentioned it before, we are building four intermodal freight complexes. We are materializing them in Palenque, where the connection with the Transístmico is precisely located. There we are building a freight complex in Palenque, Chiapas, two more in the state of Yucatán, in Mérida and in Progreso. Now we arrive at the port of Progreso and another one in Cancún. It is no small thing. The number of tracks that these four yards have is 100 km of classification, dispatch, registration, and circulation tracks. In addition to all the infrastructure of offices, workshops, warehouses, maintenance workshops, storage, and distribution of petroleum products. Well, in addition to this, we are rehabilitating 26 km of old railway that entered the city of Mérida. We are going to reactivate it so that all the heavy industry reconnects and moves through the railway ring of the Tren Maya and subsequently connects to the national railway network of all the products for the peninsula. Additionally, we are also building another 49 km of new railway to connect the Tren Maya railway ring from the south of Mérida with Puerto Progreso to this new complex where goods will be received from the port. In addition to uniting these two populations, it is also important to mention that we connect two poles of well-being in accordance with the instruction we received to harmonize our federal project with the Maya Renaissance project of the state government. From there, we must also mention that we are building a southern bypass road in Cancún of 9.6, 106 km in length and four lanes to connect the Cancún freight complex with the city and with Highway 180 that goes towards Mérida and Highway 307 that goes down to Chetumal. Regardless of the fact that it has a fundamental function of moving the cargo that arrives by train, it will also relieve traffic south of Cancún. Well, and starting in 2027 we will begin the second phase of the freight complex. This consists of building a new multimodal freight complex in the border city of Chetumal and four secondary complexes in the cities of Valladolid, Yucatán, Pomuch, Xpujil, and Escárcega in Campeche. As you can see, we have a lot of activity, and by the end of this year we will already be delivering complexes for the operation of the Tren Maya. We close by commenting the following. In the planning and execution of these priority projects of the Mexican government, in these first two years of the administration, 88,800 direct jobs have been generated by us, well remunerated and with social coverage. We maintain as of today a workforce of 37,000 active workers on payroll. We have an investment spending exercise of 49,739,000,000 pesos in the three priority projects we have. Today we are generating basic engineering for the total construction of 2,250 km of passenger railways. We are building at this moment 844 km of railways, both for passengers and for freight. But by the end of this year, in coordination with the agency, we will be starting the construction of the Irapuato, of the Irapuato-Guadalajara section, which are another 580 km of track. In total, we are talking about 1,424 km. The previous administration only executed 991 km, that is, we will have carried out more than 40% more track than the previous administration. We have nothing left to say but that we continue working together with our colleagues from the Railway Agency in the constant evaluation of new projects and in carrying out very punctual follow-up of the construction we are doing. We do not omit to mention that we work hand in hand with the environmental and archaeological authorities to continue preserving our environment and safeguarding our historical and cultural heritage. We have nothing left to say but that we once again ask the local communities that benefit from these railway projects for their understanding and support so that we can maintain the momentum of the works. That is all, President.
With your permission, President. Next slide, please. We are going to report, within the framework of the second government report of the Government of the Republic, on the progress of the release of the right of way for the northern trains, noting as always that this is a coordinated work fundamentally with the agrarian sector, headed by Dr. Edna Vega and in a very specific way, of course, with the RAN, with the Agrarian Prosecutor's Office in coordination with Undersecretary Griselda Martínez. As of today, we already have in the Northern Trains 31,241,847 m², and on this occasion, President, we brought a comparative, perhaps in football fields, to make it more understandable, of what the size of the work that has been done in terms of release is. It is close to 4,881 official football fields that have been released. The work has been carried out in eight federal entities with 54 municipalities in permanent coordination. The progress we have as of today in AIFA-Pachuca is 98% of the release of the right of way. In Querétaro-Irapuato, also 98%. In México-Querétaro, 86%, and in Saltillo-Nuevo Laredo, 81%. These percentages also vary depending on how we are sometimes requested an extra release that is required by construction process or by the transverse works that sometimes have to be carried out. We have as of today 68% of the released right of way in historical right of way and 32%, 15% in social property, 17% in private property. Next slide, please. In this slide, what we intend is to expose so that you can know very clearly how we are advancing in three different examples with the historical right of way, which is an instruction, we believe, fundamental, a very important decision that the President made to use the historical train tracks to advance along that route. And here we see how we have the historical right of way in an orange shading, which are, as we were telling you, close to 20,000,000 m² that we have validated in 100 titles. The oldest from 1878, the most recent from 1993, and in green color you saw what we have been releasing over these 2 years, close to 11 million m². Next slide, please. The same case, just now of these almost 11 million square meters released, new right of way, it is completely new acquisition in dialogue with ejidos, in dialogue with private owners. We started in May 2025 and we have been advancing in that release process. In October 2025 we were at 3,000,000 m² released. In February 2026 we reached 4.7, in May 2026 to 6.9, and right now in September 2026 we are closing this month with 10.7 million m² released. Next slide, please. In the specific case, just to leave clarity as in the first slide on how we have been advancing, in the AIFA-Pachuca we have 55% historical right of way, 7% social property, and 38% private property in what we have been acquiring. In the case of México-Querétaro, it is 10.22 million released, 42% historical right of way, 38% social property, and 20% private property. For the Querétaro-Irapuato, of the 4.9 million we are talking about 66% historical right of way, 10% social property, and 24% private property. And in the case of Saltillo-Nuevo Laredo, of the 12.8 million m² released, 91.5% is historical right of way, and 8% private property. In these sections, in this specific one of Saltillo-Nuevo Laredo, since there is a lot of viaduct and not so much right of way is required, but rather smaller sections, that is why we do not have so much new acquisition. Next slide, please. All this work, as I was telling you, in the entire agrarian sector, coordinated by Secretary Edna Vega and materialized in the territorial work with the Agrarian Prosecutor's Office, with the RAN, and with Undersecretary Griselda, we have advanced in a little more than 98 assemblies with 134 ejidos with the participation of more than 4,500 people. In all cases we have received the support of the communities of the ejidos to be able to proceed with the acquisition and release of the right of way. And in the specific case of these trains, we have also carried out nine consultations with indigenous communities. The nine have also been approved unanimously by the members of these communities. Next slide, please. Also as part of the President's instruction to give a treatment to the release of the right of way from an understanding of social justice, we have been finding in the release, whether within the historical right of way or in the right of way we acquire, sometimes the impacts on people who live in the surroundings of the train track. And derived from that, we have undertaken a coordinated process with CONAVI to be able to carry out relocations and relocalizations. As of today we have advanced with 49 families in the AIFA-Pachuca, 15 in the México-Querétaro. Here I take the opportunity to thank the Engineers Group that has supported us with the moving of all the families to facilitate this process. It is also important to say that we seek not to move them away from their social nuclei, from their educational nuclei. So, we do a very coordinated work, even with Infonavit, President, to find these spaces and be able to relocalize the families. Next slide, please. We are working in the AIFA-Pachuca with two federal entities and 11 municipalities. In the México-Querétaro with four states of the Republic and 21 municipalities. In the Querétaro-Irapuato, it is two states and seven municipalities. And in the Saltillo-Nuevo Laredo, it is three federal entities, 15 municipalities. We have carried out 375 meetings, 116 social tables to address any problem that may arise as the train. As General Vallejo was saying, we have commented on other mornings, this size of work generates a lot of inconvenience throughout its construction process. We have also had technical tables to address and resolve doubts and concerns that may arise in the surroundings of the construction so that there is a guarantee that we are not going to leave any community isolated. We have attended 653 requests and we have signed eight collaboration agreements and administrative facilities with the eight federal entities. Next slide, the last one, finally, President, was the slide where we point out the coordinated work with this liberator of the State that you instructed, where we are practically all the dependencies of the Government of the Republic, territorial development, defense, Interior, SEMARNAT, well-being, Pemex, of course, the TRAPI, the IMPI, the CFE, the CONAGUA, Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México in liquidation, the INDEP, we had already said the RAN, the Agrarian Prosecutor's Office, the FIFONAFE, the INA, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas and SEMAGA, and of course States and Municipalities. That is all, President. Thank you very much.
What did I tell Andrés? That he put the summary here on a slide. In total we are going to build 2,400 km in our administration, in our government of passenger trains, and 100 km of those are the Maya freight. Well, and also a part of the Interoceanic also carries freight. Well, Mexico-Pachuca has 45% progress, Mexico-Querétaro has 31% progress. Querétaro-Irapuato, 22% progress. Saltillo-Nuevo Laredo 10% progress. The Maya freight has 67% progress. And it is 16 km, I am deducing your handwriting here. 1,600 km [laughter] of northern trains, 1,600 km, Mexico City, Nuevo Laredo and Mexico City, Guadalajara. So far. In Maya freight it is 250 km in total, including the part that goes to Puerto Progreso, and 550 km of the Interoceanic, new kilometers and the reduction of curves in a certain area of the Interoceanic. 2,400 km is a total investment of about 750,000 million pesos that we are investing in trains in the six-year term, and as Andrés mentioned, trains have many virtues. One connects regions, connects cities. Not only the long section, not only Mexico City, Nuevo Laredo, but all the cities and the sections that are being connected and how that connectivity generates economic development in each place. That is one of the great virtues. The second, well, compared to a bus or a vehicle, the train reduces polluting emissions. And the third, which is also very important, is that when it is built it generates a very large number of jobs. Now, at this moment there are more than about 60,000 direct jobs generated with the trains. And if we consider an indirect job, which in reality are more, but let's suppose one, well, it is 120,000 jobs generated. So, we are very happy, truly, with the work that is being developed and we are moving forward well, and to thank all the communities and the population centers because there really has not been a problem, there is a lot of enthusiasm, and where it is requested to change the housing from one place to another, everything always within the framework of the law and within the framework of what an institution of the Mexican government tells us about how much the purchase of a land should cost, which is the INDAVI. From there, all the activity is being developed. I hope, today I was asking in the morning when the first groundbreaking ceremony will be. We hope in '27 at least part of the Mexico City-Pachuca section or well, AIFA-Pachuca and Mexico City-Querétaro we can give the groundbreaking for the start of operations. This also involves the purchase of trains. We still lack a train tender and also everything that is the signaling of a track so that they operate automatically, without requiring manual operation. Well, this is the information on the trains. Let's go. Let's see, it's been a while since you asked questions.
Good morning, President. Good morning, Eduardo Esquivel Ancona from Domo de Cristal. My first question is about the fact that a great investment is being made in railways, but this will also demand technicians and operators and everything. How are these new operators being trained? That would be my first question. And the maintenance ones and those who attend the tracks.
Do you both want to answer, or Andrés and then the General? General, if you want. Yes.
Gustavo Ricardo Vallejo Suárez
39:23 ↗
It's good that you mention that question because 6 years ago when we started building track, we didn't have technicians. The ones who knew about track were very old people, we didn't have installed capacity to produce sleepers, fasteners, rails and other track equipment. There weren't enough equipment. Today we can at least say that of a workforce of about 470,000 workers that we have hired in these 8 years, and there is a whole school, a school of people who know about track, who know about track, we have formed because apart from that the Polytechnic is already training its professionals, railway maintenance engineers. Other technical schools too. Today we are recruiting those young technicians who come from the vocational schools that before studied some agricultural sciences and today those vocational schools are transforming into railway technical generators. When we started in this administration the construction of tracks, we were no longer, sorry for the expression, we were no longer barefoot, we had a lot of trained people, so much so that we have mentioned it here. Today we are developing the basic engineering of 2,250 km of new routes. 60% we can develop ourselves because of the experience we already have of having developed railway projects. The
60%, not the other 40%, because it requires special drilling, surveying, and wave-emission equipment that we don't have. But there is already a whole dynamic of people studying first construction and, most importantly, also operation. The Maya Train itself is drawing on many technicians graduating from institutes in the southeast that converted their agricultural and environmental studies into railway studies. So yes, there are people, and today we have more and more trained people. And when this administration ends, we will have left behind very many young professional technicians, and we have also recovered — I don't know if I can mention it — a great many retired people from the old railroads who return as our advisors and who come very happy to see how the railway is reborn. There are people, we are trained, we have developed great experience, there is a reconversion of educational institutes to now generate technicians in construction and track maintenance. Evidently also the productive plant. Today there are more plants for sleepers, for track elements, and there is also much more machinery for building track. When the administration ends, the infrastructure will be ready to keep building more railway. That is all from us, Madam President.
Thank you.
And I would just like to add, in terms of training drivers and so on. Our country has a great school that is partly from the Mexico City Metro. So much of the training draws on the experience of the Mexico City Metro, and also, as the general was saying, it is very impressive within the agency itself. Almost all the engineers are from the National Polytechnic Institute, from UPiXa, specifically from UNAM and from TecNM.
In a second question, last month there was an accident, a derailment in Sonora. There were these agrochemicals, right, very strong ones that are dangerous. Are the tracks of the concessionaires of these being reviewed? This was Ferromex, which is Grupo México, right? This company. Are all these tracks being reviewed?
Yes, in fact we have two verification programs. The track verification program we carry out, which is a regular procedure, but we have also expanded that program, especially on the tracks where we run alongside the right of way. A much deeper review is being done than was traditionally done. Just to give you an example, between 2025 and 2026 there have been more than 160 sanctions imposed on the railways for infrastructure failures.
Thank you very much. And one more question. The general... the general engineer... Yes, general of fun... engineer. You mentioned that some tracks that had been there for many years in Mérida, Yucatán, were going to be used. Well, my whole family is from Yucatán. My grandfather used the train at the beginning of the last century; he was a doctor and used it to visit the sugar mills, the CAD from Ticul to Peto. More than 1,000 km of track were built in that era of the Porfiriato to develop the industry. Are there other tracks, apart from this one in Mérida, that could make use of that great infrastructure?
Yes, you're right. First, we are rehabilitating the old track of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec railway, which was built in the 1890s and 1900s and restored and rehabilitated several times. It was in fact last rehabilitated in 2014-15. We are talking about a track that leaves Pochilá and passes through the entire industrial corridor of Mérida, alongside the airport. We are talking about 26 km of track that was left unusable when the Maya Train track was built; it wasn't connected. Today we are rehabilitating it so that heavy industry can once again move, transport, receive, and process products by rail. The train already has more than 20 letters of intent from that whole industrial zone, so that as soon as we hand it over to Vinalizar by the end of the year, they can move their material, which they already have. And as you already mentioned, when construction began on the 15 km railway ring of the Maya Train freight line, many segments of the old Isthmus of Tehuantepec railway track were left idle, mainly because it had just been rehabilitated in 2014-15 — that is, rails from 2012, sleepers of good capacity, new, new fastenings — which were left frozen. With the authorization of the President of the Republic, we carried out the largest recovery campaign ever done in the country in its entire history, recovering almost, I can tell you, around 90 to 100 km of track, rails, sleepers, and new fastenings that were left idle when the Maya Train passenger train passed, and even the surplus material from the Maya Train works we also recovered to build today's new rail freight yards. We are talking — and we have informed the President of the Republic — about a savings of 2,000 million pesos, which represents money not spent because the rails, fastenings, and sleepers were already there and we recovered them. Well, we are even recovering the ballast that was left underneath; we are recovering it and grading it to leave you earthwork roads. All of that means we stopped spending 2,000 million pesos, and on the other hand, consider the environmental benefit of removing track, fastenings, and sleepers that would be rusting and rotting if they had no use. We only lack 11 km of track to recover, and we are coordinating with our colleagues at ST in the Campeche area so that the peninsula is left clean of any old track. That is called material recovery, quality control. Everything, evidently, goes through quality controls. We test the sleepers, we do physical tests, destructive and non-destructive, we recover the sleepers again, we review them, we reseal them to prevent — normally a sleeper fails because the steel rusts and bursts it. We clean them again, we verify which ones work and which don't. The sleepers that are useful to us we are using as ballast in the freight complexes to stabilize the slopes. The rail is new, perfectly new. We also do quality tests on the fastenings themselves. After they pass that quality process, they are used again and are guaranteed a minimum of another 30 years of use. Now, that recovered track is not being used on the main line from Mérida to Progreso. We are using it in secondary track yards, that is, where freight moves at low speed, where the freight arrives, is registered, classified, dispatched, and moved. There we have them, and even so they will have a life, with the treatment we are giving them, of another 50 years. We can assure you of that. Is that all, Madam President?
And finally, today it came out that the OECD expanded its economic growth forecast for Mexico from 0.8 to 1.5 — it doubled it. But will it be enough, or do you have data showing it can grow more?
Trains are extremely important for economic growth. The growth we showed yesterday — yesterday it came out at 2.5%, right? For the last month according to the... what do they call that survey? INEGI.
These are the forecasts of how GDP will grow, and the... Indicador Oportuno de Actividad Económica.
Exactly. The Indicador Oportuno de Actividad Económica grew 2.5%. Do you remember that I had said the second semester would be better? And indeed, why? Because it takes time to tender, for example, Mexico City, Querétaro — well, we had already been building those, the resources are there, no problem since '25. Mexico City, Pachuca too, but the other sections are just beginning to hire people and develop. So evidently, the first half is for tendering or for getting the equipment, etc., and the second semester begins. Now, multi-year works are being tendered right now, from now until December, for highways, for water, for drainage. So the tenders made now will be for 2027 to 2030. We will no longer have the problem of spending time at the beginning of the year in the whole bureaucratic process to be able to tender a work. So the second semester is going to go well, and there is also important private investment, and from 2027 it will go even better.
Let's go to this side, to this side. Let's see, the colleague.
Thank you very much, Madam President. I'm Ricardo Pérez from Diario Red América Latina. Yesterday the President of the United States again referred to Mexico in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly. He said Mexico was the epicenter of the drug cartels and that it was unacceptable to share a 3,000 km border with a country controlled by these organizations. What would you say to him, Madam President?
Well, after that he said something else, right? Let's see what he said afterwards. He said he had a good relationship with Mexico and that, well, Mexico was going... and that we also wanted to fight the cartels. Yes, because they take one part of the statement and then they don't take the other. I mean, we could get into... I could say it's very difficult to live next to a country that has such a high level of illicit drug consumption. Or I could say, 'It's very difficult to live next to a country that has so much weapons production.' But I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say it because we have a good relationship with President Trump and the government of the United States. So we are working in a coordinated manner and we are moving forward.
Thank you very much, Madam President. Yesterday the INEGI intercensal survey was also released, with interesting data on aging. The median age in the country goes from 29 to 32 years in just 5 years. And well, it also speaks of a fertility rate at historic lows. And well, it contains another piece of data too. For the first time it calculates the number of people displaced by security and violence issues, close to 1.6 million people, according to INEGI's calculation. What could you tell us about these data?
There are very interesting data. One of them is that the population growth rate is 0.7%. What does that mean? If we want a replacement, let's say, of the population, of course it has to do with how many years a Mexican, a Mexican woman, lives on average. The population replacement rate is 2%. Why? A family of four. Because mom and dad have two. Of course, during one period there are four in the family, but if you only have one son or one daughter, then the population decreases. If there are families or couples or people who live alone and don't have children, then the population shrinks. Do you understand me? Am I explaining it clearly? 0.7 is still less than one, which would be one child per couple. That is, right now, from 2020 to 2025, a couple — that is, there are couples who don't have children, or people who live alone and decide not to have children. So it's a very reduced population rate. That made the average age of Mexicans go from 29 to 32 years. So it's a relevant topic because, for example, I don't know if there's a population pyramid coming up.
Look, for example, from 0 to 4 years — it's in percentage, right? From 0 to 4 years there are... you add the one side and the other, right? 2.9 plus 2.9 is what? 5.8. 5. Mexico has from 0 to 4 years. But it's much less than from 5 to 9 years. What is going to happen? That there are fewer and fewer boys and girls. So all of this is relevant for planning and also for understanding why families today often have children later or why they decide not to have children. It's not something exclusive to Mexico; it's something that began in Europe a long time ago, the United States also has a reduction. So does China. There they did it on purpose. They made a decision a long time ago that only one child could be had, and they have other problems, but the result is very relevant. We are 130... 130,911,000... 314. Yesterday Graciela Márquez, the president of INEGI, came to present me the results and she told me the population because you only have to remember 130 million and then it's 911, which is a number we know, and then it's pi 314. So 130,911,314 people, Mexicans living in the national territory. The average age is 32 years, and that chart we put up there is like a photograph of how the population is right now. So these tools that INEGI makes are very important because they allow us to plan ahead, and the reduction in the birth rate has its implications. Now it's different for each state of the Republic. I think there's one there. No, but that's population by state. Well, the state that continues to have the largest population is the State of Mexico with 17.5 million inhabitants, the city 9.1, 9.2 — it didn't grow that much in Mexico City — and the states with fewer than one million inhabitants are Campeche, Baja California Sur, and Colima. But there's one on birth rates, it's not there. Maybe she didn't show it to me and that's it.
Now, regarding the displaced people you mentioned, who are close to 1.5 million, we asked that we could work with INEGI to know exactly what the question was, because Guerrero appears, for example, as the one with the most displacement, but they add up those displaced by meteorological phenomena and by violence or insecurity situations. Guerrero lived Otis and then John, and we know there was migration of some people while it recovered economically, particularly Acapulco. So we agreed to work particularly on the issue of the displaced, because the question may be where they arrived or where they left from. So we are going to work a bit more and see if a specific survey is needed to know this topic.
Will there be any kind of adjustment in public policies or any kind of campaign, for example, to encourage couples to have more children or something?
Well, we have to review what has been done in many places. There are governments, for example, that give resources for having children, right? And they haven't necessarily had results, or campaigns that haven't necessarily had results. We have to understand sociologically, with social psychology, all the specialties. Exactly. What is happening with young people today who decide not to have children or to have only one child? Many times women work more now, and so women decide to have children later. Anyway, there are many phenomena. So first we have to analyze what is happening, and after that, see what we do as a country regarding 0.7% population growth. Now there are other very interesting ones, for example, the people who receive programs and health. I think there's also a very good one. For example, 41.4% of households receive at least one government program, it can be state or federal. Then this one I was telling you about health, I don't know if it's there, for example, social security affiliates in 2020 were 77.1. But INEGI has a way of asking, because to see if they have access to social security, which is different. They asked the question since the National Survey of Household Income and Expenditure. In 2025 in total it gives 86.6%. And affiliates as such 72.5, but with access 86.6. All of this, I asked the president of INEGI that a team dedicated to data analysis, particularly the Digital Transformation Agency, could work to have much more disaggregated information and be able to make decisions.
Thank you very much, Madam President. If you'll allow me to change the subject. Here there has been recurrent talk about this disinformation operation by this right-wing outlet, a disinformation daily, and how it has been invited to work in Mexico by the businessman Ricardo Salinas. And well, we published on our portal a few weeks ago how some municipalities or government entities continue giving contracts to the Grupo Salinas business group, and it's the case of the Puebla City Council, where last year three contracts were signed with two companies from this business group for about 26 million pesos with Total Play and with the TV broadcaster TV Azteca, right in the middle of the media offensive against the federal government. Will there be any guidance from the federal government to public entities regarding contracts with this specific business group, Madam President?
States and municipalities are autonomous. It's a decision. We give guidelines for the federal government and the decentralized bodies of the government or public companies, Pemex, CFE, IMSS, ISSSTE, but municipalities and states, well, that's up to them, right?
If you'll allow me one last question, Madam President, we are practically days away from elections being held in Brazil, in a context where there have been denunciations of US interference in this presidential determination published last week by the White House. Not only is Mexico mentioned, but also Brazil. It is mentioned that President Lula's government has failed in combating the criminal organizations operating in that country, and well, just a few days ago Brazilian intelligence services spoke of a possible US interference in the electoral day on October 4th. Your good relationship with President Lula is public. Besides, well, yesterday itself there was talk of the delivery of the planes in Brazil. There has been talk here of the agreement with Petrobras for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. How are you seeing... not internally what is happening in Brazil, but this international panorama regarding the upcoming election to be held there in Brazil.
I would give two opinions. One, I think President Lula has been a very good president. I'll just give you one. In one year he fulfilled his promise of zero hunger in Brazil. He had achieved it in his first, second term, then poverty grew, and in a year, a little over a year, he achieved zero hunger. Well, that's a great achievement. Brazil has a population of, let's see, how many people does Brazil have? 300-something million. Let's see if you can pass it to me. Ah, 213... 213 million. We have 130 million Mexicans. There are 213 million in Brazil. So that's extremely important. That would be one of my opinions. And the second is that there should be no foreign interference in any election of any country, and that is a constitutional principle of Mexico, it's called self-determination of peoples and peaceful resolution of conflicts. That's why the United Nations exists, but there should be no foreign interference. So in Brazil, let Brazilians decide freely, and whatever the people decide, let it be respected. But the truth is that more and more people are getting informed. Ah, there's a very good piece of data. 98% of Mexicans have a cell phone... around there in the census. More people now get information depending on the state of the Republic, the entity, through social media than through television and radio. Look, ah, sorry, 94.5. I was already adding four points, sorry. That is, it grew from 88.1 to 94.5, and television dropped from 91.3 to 89.5. Home internet from 53.9 to 75.7. Devices for listening to radio dropped, computers, pay TV dropped, landline phones dropped a lot too, but it's relevant that 94.5% of Mexicans have a cell phone. So that means that a part or more people now get information through social media. And the problem with social media, as we all know and have discussed here, are the algorithms of the networks. So the algorithm isn't that you can see diversity and plurality, but that when you stop on certain content, everything else will come to you with that content. And you stop and they speak badly of the president, and you see it once for a few seconds, and then you'll always get propaganda against the president. You'll hardly get anything in favor. So these are devices that, besides, if you pay to promote more content against, and many times with false notes, then you manipulate the information that citizens have access to. That's why it's essential — I don't know if the INE is going to do it now — but a minimal regulation of social media, right? And do they influence? Of course they influence. And with artificial intelligence even more so, not only because of the extremely rapid creation of content, but also because of how they inject information through robots or bots on cell phones that aren't associated with a person, on the different social networks, and the platforms are controlled by five people in the world, or six, right? Yes. So, it's relevant, and well, calling for self-determination in the case of Brazil.
Thank you.
Let's go now to this side, let's see the colleague who raised his hand, Federico Lamun. One for you, Madam President, and one for Master Néstor Núñez. Yours is whether you consider that 21 years ago when President Fox returned and gave back VAT to the Kansas City company, you could consult through the Chamber of Deputies with the Auditor Superior de la Nación whether that VAT payment to Kansas City for the railway network was fair or legal or was a murky affair of that administration under Fox's mandate? And whether you believe that the derailment of the railway network between Fox and Zedillo concluded with that criterion that you and your chain of command could reverse in the sense of creating a non-mercantilist criterion in the delivery or operation of trains, and that the tracks are certainly operated by the Mexican state, but the commercial use belongs to the multinational railway network. Would that be a challenge for your administration? And the second for Master Néstor Núñez, whether you believe that the bottlenecks that exist to date on the Mexico-Laredo, Mexico-Querétaro-Laredo, Querétaro-Laredo section could be reversed, and whether this matter with the Auditoría Superior could be investigated, inquired into, and yield some result for Mexicans.
Well, we're reviewing this you mention about the VAT refund to Kansas City. Why don't you talk about it? If you want, Néstor, if you want to answer, and Andrés, how are the concessions, what are the concessionaires obligated to do, everything related to rail freight transport.
With your permission, Madam President. I wouldn't say, Federico, that we have bottlenecks. The truth is that in the release, in the whole process we have of releasing the right of way, as the President rightly pointed out, besides all the social attention, the permanent dialogue, the communication every day with people so they know what is going to happen, we inform them of the appraisals at the time we do the whole release matter. Then comes an administrative process. We have... the majority of the release sections have been done through prior occupation agreements with negotiated expropriations, that is, we dialogue with people, we reach an agreement, and from there the expropriation is done. But the expropriation itself, the administrative legal act, has a complexity that we have to comply with the norm, of course, so that it can be published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación and this social property or private property becomes part of the right of way. So, rather than bottlenecks, this last part we're missing at AIFA Pachuca, this last part we're missing at Querétaro, Irapuato, the terms and administrative processes that must be fulfilled are running so that we can already assume these sections as property of the Mexican state. The vast majority of these processes began with negotiations and the owners signed. There are some sections where we couldn't negotiate because there is some uncertainty about who the owner is. We don't just investigate who claims to be the owner, but with Undersecretary Griselda we review in the Registro Agrario Nacional, in all municipal cadastres, in the public property registries, not only the current owner, but we do a historical review from when it is known that it became social property or private property. So, I reiterate, rather than bottlenecks, I believe we are complying with the administrative and legal processes to finish these last sections.
With your permission, Madam President. In the case of railway concessions, we have mainly two large concessionaires, which are Canadian Pacific Kansas City, which is a merger of Canadian Pacific that effectively operates from Canada, the United States, and Mexico, and we have another which is Ferromex. However, there are also other additional concessionaires. One is Ferrosur, which is also part of Grupo México, just like Ferromex, which is a purchase operation that was authorized, I believe, under the government of Felipe Calderón. Ah, and we have some smaller concessionaires, for example, the Coahuila-Durango line, which mainly provides mining and industry services, that is, whose business is more concentrated. And in Mexico City or in the metropolitan area of the Valle de México, Ferrovalle, which is owned by Kansas City — well, by CanPac, Kansas City, by Grupo México, and by the SIC, whose main objective is that everyone has access to Mexico City. What are the responsibilities of the concessionaires? They have the responsibility to maintain all the facilities they have under concession, maintain the right of way, and provide the service with certain characteristics to commercial users. That means they hold in custody the facilities that originally belonged to Ferrocarriles Nacionales. That's why in some places, for example, in downtown Monterrey or downtown Guadalajara, what were stations became rail yards and today are under the custody of the concessions, and that includes keeping them in the operating conditions required. Effectively, the concessions also consider that once the concession period ends they must return the facilities in the same or better conditions than those they received. That is, they cannot be in worse conditions than when they received them. The majority of the concessions, not all, have a duration of 50 years and are extendable from 1995 to date. Some of these concessions, as they are the smaller ones in terms of length, are 30 years, especially those that provide more dedicated services to certain industries or to mining. Also that they have the possibility of extension if they meet the conditions that existed at the origin of the concession. The tariffs, the maximum tariff must be registered before the agency, the tariff for all the services they provide. And there is, from the Comisión Nacional Antimonopolios, a set of tariffs that are regulated, where the price cannot exceed a certain limit, and specifically it has to do with products that are not only dangerous products, but very dangerous products, specifically linked to the oil industry, where the only way they can be moved is by rail, and that's why there the tariff is defined by the authority. And there are around 18,000 km of track that are under concession. Hey, the constitutional reform... the constitutional reform of the... So, the constitutional reform that was approved last year, 2024-2025, was very important for two reasons, and it's part of the studies we're doing in terms of planning rail service. One is that it's clear that it's a strategic area of the Mexican state, right? So the attributes regarding planning, administration, and control of the railways were strengthened. But the most important thing is that the concessionaires, although they are primarily freight, are obligated to allow the operation of passenger services on their own tracks. So that's why part of the analysis we're doing are projects where passenger service can be provided on the tracks that are today concessioned for freight. The concession was granted in '97 and they're 50 years.
Let's go to this side now. Let's see.
Good morning, Madam President. Alonso Gutiérrez from La Jornada. I'd like to take up the United Nations issue, but from another perspective. Beyond what was said about Mexico, there was something of a confrontation between two visions of how to manage the United Nations, between the multilateralism that Guterres and President Lula defended, and a supremacist vision from the United States boasting, for example, of the kidnapping of President Maduro. What is Mexico's vision on this matter?
Mexico's vision is the constitutional vision that has to do with the equality of states, and that means what is called multilateralism. That is, that decisions be made among all the nations that have the same vote. With the creation of the United Nations, the Security Council remained. The Security Council somehow controls many of the United Nations decisions, which are five countries: the United States, China, Russia, if I'm not mistaken, France, and the United Kingdom. So a good part of the decisions are concentrated there. We have said here several times that from our perspective, particularly with the Palestine issue, with the war in Iran itself and what happened in Venezuela, what is happening today with Cuba, our vision is that there should first be no commercial blockades, why? Because they affect peoples, not governments. And second, the self-determination of peoples, and third, the peaceful resolution of controversies. Through what? Through the mechanisms of the United Nations. By the way, Roberto Velasco hasn't participated yet in the assembly because yesterday he was heavily criticized for attending a meeting that had to do with the rights of LGBT people, and he went to this parallel table that was there, but he hasn't participated yet in the assembly. He's coming, I think on Friday he'll participate, barely. But for example, Madam President, the genocide in Palestine clearly shows that the UN is absolutely overwhelmed. Yes, that's why we talk about strengthening the United Nations in that multilateral vision. That's why, that's why we supported Bachelet at the time, but Bachelet didn't pass with these five nations that, let's say, have veto power. A deep reform of the United Nations Organization would be required. It would be very good, Madam President. And why didn't you consider it appropriate to attend the General Assembly? There are moments and moments where one decides to go and not to go, and I considered that this was not a moment to attend the assembly. I didn't go last year either. I'm going in November to the PEC. There, yes, because Mexico receives the PEC.
So we are going to receive... I have to go to China in November because there we are going to receive, let's say, the baton to hold APEC in 2028.
