The railway system to connect Monterrey with Nuevo Laredo estimates mobilizing 5 million 600 thousand people annually that to detonate shopping tourism to the border, business trips, as well as make visits to hunting ranches, mountains, concerts, parties and football and baseball matches.
“A positive impact of the train could be the decrease in vehicular traffic on the road (Monterrey to Nuevo Laredo),” reveals the Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure and Transportation (SICT).
The new means of transport can “capture travelers who used to go by car or bus, which reduces congestion and accidents on these routes, given that 5.6 million annual trips could migrate from road to train,” details the dependency in charge of Jesús Antonio Esteva Medina.
According to the documentation held by Forbes Mexicothe fast train, whose construction costs 109 billion pesos, will increase the flow of monterrey travelers that go to Nuevo Laredo to make purchases of imported goods.
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Currently, the Monterrey road trip to Nuevo Laredo is done in a time between 3.5 hours and 4 hours, so the new train will reduce the trip to 1.5 hours.
There will also be an estimated 40 percent decrease in the fatal accident rate in the corridor, thanks to the modal transfer to the train.
“Visitors from Coahuila or Nuevo León without Visa could arrive by train to Nuevo Laredo for border purchases. This would benefit shops both in Nuevo Laredo (Duty-Free stores), and in Monterrey (Shopping Tourism),” explains the sict.
Claudia Sheibaum Pardo, President of the Republic, establishes the construction of 3 thousand km of passenger trains.
In her speech on October 1, 2024, the president announced the development of priority routes, including the Mexico City – New Laredo, which is a key piece for connectivity in the north of the country.
The project aims to strengthen regional connectivity and logistics competitiveness in the north of the country through a modern, safe and high capacity passenger service, he details.
“This system will complement the existing transport offer and significantly reduce transfer times between Monterrey, and the northern border with the United States,” he says.
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Similarly, the development of the project responds to a series of structural challenges in mobility, logistics competitiveness, road safety and environmental sustainability that currently faces the north of the country.
“The saturation of the existing road infrastructure, the accelerated growth of industrial investment and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions make the implementation of
More efficient, safe and sustainable mass transport solutions, ”says the SICT.
The Monterrey road to Nuevo Laredo operates with saturations of more than 90 percent of its capacity at peak hours, which increases logistics costs and affects the efficiency of cross -border trade, he says.
“The Nearshoring phenomenon has triggered a direct foreign record in Nuevo León, with more than 33 thousand 700 million dollars in 2024, which increases the demand for agile and safe transport, especially for technical and executive personnel,” says the entity in charge of the transport agenda in Mexico.
The SICT remembers that the current road infrastructure records frequent accidents, which puts user safety at risk and affects the continuity of supply chains. Daily more than 18 thousand workers are transferred between Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo.
A tourist boom
The Monterrey Metropolitan Area offers business tourism, but there are nature trips such as going to the Fundidora Park, to the horse tail, as well as the mountains in the chipinque and attending events, concerts, congresses, football, basketball and baseball matches.
“In the rural section, there are no massive tourist destinations, but there are hunting and rural tourism: hunting ranches in lampazos, local festivities (Villaldama has small cultural festivals), and historical places (Lampazos was ancient town with ruins).
Nuevo Laredo has border tourism (purchase of certain products, roast gastronomy, cross -border relatives).
“It is not a conventional tourist destination, but there are casinos, stores, who attract people from the other side of Laredo,” he says.
The train facilitates weekend excursions, for example, regiomontanos will be able to go by train to Saltillo to spend the day (and vice versa): “This can increase regional internal tourism.”
Saltillo could be promoted more as an escape destination with his desert museum, his route of the Parras wine.
“A” tourist train “could be developed in certain periods, or packages that combine train journeys with guided tours, a Monterrey -Saltillo package including cultural tour.”
With the train, more people from Coahuila could go to concerts or games in Monterrey without having to drive 3 hours, making viable round trips the same day. The same in the opposite direction for events in Saltillo or Fairs.
“If you consider to stop the train in a locality with potential (example as the Cultural Station in Villaldama, which has historical heritage of the colonial era), you could encourage tourists to get off. Even if the train does not stop everyone, the fact of passing can make the town visible and incite travelers to meet at another time.”
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“Nuevo Laredo could receive more national visitors interested in crossing Texas (shopping tourism) using the train as a medium to the border, complemented by local transport to cross the international bridge.”
Conversely, you can facilitate US tourists to cross the afternoon in Nuevo Laredo (if you feel safe and convenient), which would benefit restaurants, concludes the sict.
