Expansion of the Suburban Train is already 10% complete: CAF

The general director of Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) Mexico, Max Zurita, assured that construction work has already begun on the expansion of the suburban train from Lechería to the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) in the part that corresponds to the concessionaire, due to to that in the last month they received a loan of 400 million pesos from the National Infrastructure Fund (Fonadin).

In addition, to accelerate, it is expected that in the first quarter of the following year they will be granted a credit from the development bank of 12.5 billion pesos, for which it has the support of the federal government (this amount includes the advance of 400 millions of pesos).

The scheduled date for the start of commercial operations of the train is September 2023 and, despite the fact that the required permits, licenses and authorizations are advanced, it considers it difficult for it to function before that date.

Because the extension line is on the Ferrovalle road, on the environmental issue only the impact statement will be updated and does not represent an obstacle for the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT), who is responsible for it.

In an interview, the director of CAF recalled that the expansion has an extension of 24 km and includes four new stations (Cueyamil, Los Agaves, Nextlalpan and Jaltocan), each one with a multimodal transfer center, rolling stock, electromechanical systems, a loading yard, vehicular bridges and the terminal station at the new airport.

In total, the cost of the expansion was estimated at 22,500 million pesos, of which it was agreed that 15,000 million pesos will be provided by the concessionaire Ferrocarriles Suburbanos (made up of: CAF with 43.5%, Omnitren with 7.5% and Fonadin 49%) and the rest the federal government.

In addition to the credit they are waiting for, the consortium will contribute the remaining 2,500 million pesos with the certainty that all the investment they make will be recovered with the recent extension of the concession title from 50 to 68 years, also motivated by the loss of passengers for the year past the Covid-19 pandemic.

If we add up everything that has been done in the expansion, it could say that there is an advance of 10%, because the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) has already finished the AIFA station and is now building eight km of civil works on the road, which which has involved one 3,500 million pesos. In our case, the most important thing is that since last year we began to prepare the executive projects for the work and they are already duly authorized by the SICT ”, said Zurita.

Another cost included is 1,500 million pesos for the 10 trains that will be used, which will be provided by the Mexico-Toluca Train, so that investment will not be made at this time. For its part, the SICT will also allocate resources for the vehicular and pedestrian crossings that will be on the route and in the construction of the new Ferrovalle loading yard, where it is associated with KCSM and Ferromex.

– Was the Fonadin loan your request or did the government tell you as a partner: help them? Max Zurita was asked.

– It was because we all sat down and said: it will take time to obtain the resources, but if we want to have the project as close as possible to the opening of the airport, we have to start building now. From there the bridge loan arose, which is a loan with all those of the law and we already have an advance.

– What does it depend on if the train really starts operations in September 2023?

– First of all, that during the first quarter of next year the credit is granted, that the rights of way and the properties where the transfer centers will be built are released and the government gives them to us, because if not where do I build. Also that the SICT build the new Ferrovalle cargo yard, which is already starting.

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Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx

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