Passenger Trains and Housing Drive the National Economy, Sheinbaum Says
This article by Arturo Sánchez Jiménez originally appeared in the October 31, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.
The federal passenger train and housing programs are the ones that most drive the economy in terms of public works, with a contribution of close to one percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo stated this Saturday during a supervisory visit to the construction of the Querétaro-Irapuato train.
The president recalled that, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), the Mexican economy grew 3.2 percent annually in the third quarter, when estimates indicated it would not exceed one percent. “I always said: they’re not counting the public works and the housing we’re building. And it’s showing its results,” she said.
Sheinbaum detailed that at least 2,500 kilometers of railways are being built in the country, of which around 300 correspond to freight; the rest, to new passenger trains, which will run between cities but also as metropolitan transportation. “It’s as if we were building Metros in some metropolitan areas,” she compared.
From the viaduct that passes over the municipal garbage dump, known until now as the “Garbage Dump Viaduct,” the president asked that its name be changed. At the end of the event, she informed the press that it will be called the Apaseo Viaduct and that she agreed with the governor of Guanajuato, Libia Dennise García, to close that dump.
Andrés Lajous, head of the Agency of Trains and Integrated Public Transportation, announced that in June 2027 the first train of the México-Querétaro line will arrive, with which testing will begin. He explained that the Querétaro-Irapuato section is about 102 kilometers long, with 10 viaducts, a tunnel in Celaya and stations in Apaseo, Celaya, Cortazar, Villagrán, Salamanca and Irapuato. He added that it currently generates 3,365 direct jobs and 5,700 indirect ones.
The governor of Guanajuato, Libia Dennise García Muñoz Ledo, and the governor of Querétaro, Mauricio Kuri, both from the PAN, expressed their gratitude for the project and highlighted the connectivity the trains will bring to the region.
We are from different political parties, but that has nothing to do with it when we work together for the good of the people.
President Claudia Sheinbaum
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