With the traditional cry of “Long live the people, long live the State of Mexico, long live Mexico!” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador inaugurated the first section of the Mexico-Toluca Interurban Train, named “El Insurgente,” and guaranteed that no project will remain unfinished during his administration.
“An unfinished project means leaving budget money, which belongs to the people, wasted, and we cannot act irresponsibly. It’s not because it was another government; no, the government represents the entire people,” he said regarding the project that has taken nearly 10 years to build.
The Mexican president commented that his government, as can be seen, cannot leave any infrastructure project incomplete. This is the case with the Mexico-Toluca Interurban Train, construction of which had already started when his current term began.
“Imagine if we didn’t finish it, we would have excuses, we could say, ‘It was estimated at 30 billion, but it will actually cost 94 billion, and it’s public funds, not debt,'” he said.
He emphasized that 30 billion pesos had already been invested, so the people’s money could not be wasted.
President López Obrador noted that the first section of El Insurgente covers 20 kilometers and includes four stations.
The route for the initial phase begins in Zinacantepec and currently ends in Lerma. He committed the Secretary of Works of Mexico City, Jesús Antonio Esteva Medina, and the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation (SICT) to have the entire project, extending to Observatorio in the Mexican capital, operational by the first half of 2024.
Jorge Mendoza Sánchez, CEO of Banobras, explained that the train will have a frequency of 15 minutes at each station, and the end-to-end journey will take just 20 minutes.
He clarified that although this train can reach a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour, in this first section, it will have a maximum speed of 80 kilometers per hour and an average speed of 60 kilometers.
He noted that the train will operate from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day of the year, and during the month of September, the service will be free. Starting from October until June 2024, the fare will be 15 pesos regardless of the destination.
The Mexican president explained that the Mexico-Toluca Interurban Train was named “El Insurgente” in honor of the priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla.
“It is very important to know our history, our past,” he said. “He who does not know where he comes from will hardly know where he is going,” he added.
He mentioned that Mexico has had extraordinary political and social leaders, “with all due respect, leaders that other countries would envy.”
In that regard, he remembered Hidalgo, Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, Morelos, Vicente Guerrero, Ignacio Allende, Benito Juárez, the apostle of democracy Francisco I. Madero, Emiliano Zapata, Francisco Villa, General Lázaro Cárdenas del Río, among others.
The Mexican president emphasized that Hidalgo was a humanist, as he crossed the Cerro de Las Cruces without risking lives, and now El Insurgente will also pass through that area.
TYT Newsroom
