The Chetumal-Escárcega section 7 only operates 3 days a week.
The low flow of users forces section 7 of the Mayan Train, which goes from Chetumal, Quintana Roo, to Escárcega, Campeche, to operate only 3 runs a week.
The only departures available from the capital of Quintana Roo are on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays at 12:50 p.m., while the return is only on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Mondays at the same time.
“The route is very new and has very little passenger flow; as it becomes more crowded, more runs will be generated,” El Tren Maya office reports in a statement.
This is exactly what the telephone ticket sales operators of the Maya Train themselves report when you try to make a reservation, as reported by El Economista.
It is the telephone advisors of the railway who assist in selecting one of the different packages offered along the 1,500-kilometer circuit.
However, this is not reported on the ticket sales website, where someone who simply needs to travel from Chetumal to Escárcega cannot complete the operation if they need to board the train on a Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Saturday.
A bottleneck in Chetumal forces tourists to stay longer
In addition, the only three runs a week make Chetumal a mandatory stop that can extend from one to three nights, because while there are daily runs on the rest of the route, from Palenque to Chetumal, from the capital of Quintana Roo the trip can only continue on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Those who wish to travel from Cancun to Calakmul or Escárcega cannot make the journey in one day, since in Chetumal —the intermediate station between both points— the trains arrive at 2 pm, that is, more than one hour after the transfer train has left for Campeche.
If you take the train on a Thursday in Cancun bound for Calakmul, you will be forced to stop for one night in Chetumal, to continue the journey on the only 12:50 pm run the following day.
However, those who intend to take the train on a Tuesday in Cancun bound for Calakmul or Escárcega will have to spend 3 nights in Chetumal to continue their journey to Campeche until the following Friday at 12:50 pm, when the second available run of the week leaves.
The long journey from Palenque to Calakmul, passing through Chichén Itzá, Teya (Merida), and the Riviera Maya, cannot be made without stops, because the train from Chiapas only can reach Cancún.
From Cancún, another convoy must be boarded to continue the route to Chetumal; there, another mandatory stop is made to be able to finish the journey on a third convoy to Campeche.
No date for long-distance trains
This is even though the first long-distance train, the P’atal model, was delivered by Alstom in September 2024 to begin service on the 1,500 kilometers that run through five states in southeastern Mexico once the operational tests were completed.
This first long-distance model was announced with great fanfare by Andrés Manuel López Obrador four days before the end of his term, through a trip on board from Mérida to Cancún.
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