Latin America is often overlooked in the transit community but has just as interesting transit as the rest of the world, like the Mi Teleférico gondola system in La Paz, Valparaíso's many funiculars, Panama Metro, Hershey Electric Railway interurban in Cuba (fun fact: Cuba was the very first Hispanic country to get trains in 1837; Spain itself wouldn't until 1848), or Buenos Aires's Subte! As you saw on the front of the trains, it says "Tsíimin K'áak". This is the Yucatec Maya word for train. Tsíimin means horse, and K'áak means fire, so literally translated, the train is a fire horse (or a Rapidash lol)! This translation makes sense considering the steam trains that historically ran there. As mentioned, Xiinbal means "to walk". For the other types, Janal means "to eat", and P'atal means "to stay". I know people will complain the stations are outside the cities, but this was done to avoid major construction complications and disruption to existing urban infrastructure. This tourist intercity train approach reminds me of the LIRR's Montauk Branch. The Montauk Branch provides year-round service for the locals of LI's South Shore and South Fork, but during the summer, it's pretty much a tourist train for those partying in the Hamptons, visiting the famous Montauk Point Lighthouse, or heading out to Fire Island by ferry (Fire Island communities are mainly car-free and isolated; ferries are a lifeline). The Cannonball provides express weekend summer service to the Hamptons, originating in 1899 between Long Island City and Montauk or Greenport via the Main Line (the consist heading to Greenport split off from the Montauk-bound consist at Manorville; track no longer exists between Manorville and the Montauk Branch), before service from NY Penn Station in Manhattan began in 1911. In 1934, the train permanently adopted its present-day route, a single train from Penn Station to Montauk along the Montauk Branch. The train used to have parlor cars, but they were discontinued after 1999 when they got C3 bi-levels. They then introduced a "Hamptons Reserve" thing in 2001 with some cars for reserved seating and complimentary bar service, but Hamptons Reserve ended in 2019. The referendum for the Tren Maya back in December 2019 only had around two percent (100,940 people voted) of over three million show up to vote as most didn't have the financial means to go vote (though with the train, they'll have another option for transport for things like voting). Besides voters only being shown the positives and the low turnout, the majority of voters were municipal employees. All of this was criticized by the UN Human Rights High Commissioner's Mexico office. That said, it's amazing that this region of Mexico now has consistent intercity train service! It takes less time than by bus, the Tren Maya has electric shuttle buses in Cancun, Puerto Morelos, and Playa del Carmen called Conexión Intermodal Tren Maya that links the stations with different attractions, locals pay lower fares than tourists, it's grade-separated, and like the Montauk Branch, having this revolutionary service benefits both tourists and locals alike, offering locals modern service, job creation, and more economic opportunity, thus improving the quality of life there. Residents of 130 localities directly affected by the railroad route will benefit from "388 worksites and social actions", including the rehabilitation of pavements and roads, public spaces, electrical, sanitary and productive infrastructures, and housing. Mexico bringing back its intercity passenger trains is absolutely a revolution! And a double-tracked railway, especially electrified, is very much better than a highway. Would people rather see a polluting highway in the jungle, or an electric train that can take many drivers off roads? For those judging it for being built too quickly, look at China's rail success! The Beijing-Tianjin HSR opened in 2008, and by the middle of 2024, the network reached 46,000 kilometers! Expanding so quickly across a big country like China has paid off big time.
Gracias por tu experiencia de viaje en los dos trenes y las reseñas sobre tu punto de vista en mi pais , te falta que tengas experiencia en el TREN INTEROCEÁNICO
Nice concha! Conchas are said to be introduced to Mexico by French bakers. It is also believed that the idea came from a nobleman that dipped a piece of bread into some hot chocolate in front of many people and told them they should do it too. It's similar to Hong Kong's pineapple bun, which was inspired by the concha by scoring the sweet bread to look similar to a pineapple skin. Mexicans leave conchas as part of the offerings in an ofrenda during Día de los Muertos. Love the jaguar symbolism of the Tren Maya! In Mesoamerican communities, jaguars were one of the most revered animals. Every major Mesoamerican civilization had a jaguar god, many of which were important parts of their religion. These communities viewed jaguars as symbols of strength and power. For example, the Aztecs called the jaguar ocelotl and considered it to be the king of the animals. They named their most elite warriors “cuāuhocēlōtl”, a combination of the Aztec words for eagle and jaguar. They wore costumes that made them resemble these majestic cats and lead their communities both on the battlefield and at home. In Aztec culture, many believed that shamans could transform into jaguars at will and would become jaguars after they died. In the Maya civilization, the jaguar was known as balam or bolom' in many of the Mayan languages, and was used to symbolize warriors and the elite class for being brave, fierce and strong. The cat was associated with the underworld and its image was used to decorate tombs and grave-good vessels. Jaguar comes from the Tupi-Guarani word yaguara meaning "wild beast that overcomes its prey at a bound". It is the biggest cat species in the Americas and the third largest in the world. Relative to their size, they have the strongest bite of the cat kingdom. The jaguar's powerful bite allows it to pierce the carapaces of turtles and tortoises, and to employ an unusual killing method, it bites directly through the skull of mammalian prey between the ears to deliver a fatal blow to the brain. It kills capybara by piercing its canine teeth through the temporal bones of its skull, breaking its zygomatic arch and mandible and penetrating its brain, often through the ears. While a jaguar’s bite force is only three-quarters as strong as a tiger’s bite force, jaguars have the stronger bites since they are considerably smaller (up to 170 cm long, not including their tails, which can grow up to 80 cm). Jaguars can’t quite reach the 70 miles per hour of the cheetah, but they reach a very respectable 50 mph. This makes them the second-fastest big cats in the world. Jaguars are excellent swimmers. Jaguars are excellent swimmers. They can hold their breath for as long as 15 to 20 minutes, and researchers have reported that the jaguars can hold their breath for as long as 1 hour approximately. They have adapted to living in wet environments, and hunt aquatic or semi-aquatic creatures like fish, turtles, caimans, and capybaras. They also hunt for deer, birds, opossums, and armadillos.
Controversy aside, it's just so frustrating how way too many politicians in the USA and Canada and their supporters would rather waste billions on useless highway expansions than even consider building new passenger rail projects as huge as Tren Maya.
Brightline is slowly changing this stigma. They had over 2 million passengers on the Florida line in 2023. The ridership continues to grow and this year has already reached 2 million passengers at the end of September. Also, if the election goes normally, they'll have a chance to build and operate a line from the outskirts of LA to Vegas by the end of the decade.
I'm glad you got to the Train system down there! I am surprised it was the Military that financed this. A Remarkable Achievement! Mexico has a lot of those who own cars, but they see the idea of transporting people long distance and competing with Low cost Jets work better here. I also noticed many got on and off the local areas, plus the Tourists at Chichen-Itza!
Thibault, Thanks for this! I love that Mexico has proven that these projects are not only possible in North America, but people will ride them if they are available.
I really enjoy your videos and subtitles. I do have feedback on the subtitles, when watching on a smaller screen the amount of subtitles hide half of the video. Maybe you can have one sentence at a time.
As part of the project, hotels, museums, and ecotourism parks were also built. Once the passenger line is finished, the tracks will be opened for freight transport (as well as a small expansion to a port). Also, Alstom has a train construction plant in Mexico.
Thank you very much for uploading this video, finally a review channel that was able to upload this travel experience on the Mayan Train, I couldn't find any because they are all from Politics talking about how good and bad it is (pure politics) and finally, a review perfect from this trip. I'm from Mexico but I don't live in that region of the country, so thank you very much for coming to this country and I hope you loved it.
I’m very excited to see you cover my birth country of Mexico in your videos. I wish we did more of that here in the United States like New York. We could use more rail transport here to get people out of their cars.
@@ovibiswas7849let's be honest but cars are inferior to trains, Republicans just want you to give your automobile and oil masters their money. I'm not surprised that the low IQ religious can't critically think
C'est vraiment impressionnant cette infrastructure réalisée en si peu de temps ! Super reportage Thibault. Je suis vraiment content pour le Mexique, un pays qui va de l'avant avec la construction d'infrastructures durables et de qualité et qui prend les moyens pour éviter que la corruption ne vienne nuire a ce genre de projets. En plus, ça devrait aider à ce que les touristes des stations balnéaires aillent dépenser un peu leur argent à l'intérieur des terres et ainsi mieux distribuer cette manne. En espérant que ça va secouer un peu le Canada et les États-Unis... car disons le, notre transport ferroviaire au Canada est le pire de tout le G7. Dire qu'en 20 ans, la Chine à construit 46 000 km de LGV et que les É-U en arrachent avec leur projet californien de seulement 700 km qui ne sera pas en fonction avant 2035...
Or more likely: not until maybe 2050 for the LA to SF CAHSR route to begin operating, considering all of the planned tunneling that has not even begun the digging operations yet.
Mexico is putting the US and Canada to shame by building such an ambitious project in such a short time while we cannot build anything without decades of political struggle. This reminds me of when SNCF left CAHSR and went to Morocco because it was a "less politically dysfunctional state". I'm ashamed of the state of the political system here. We can't get anything done, and yet we think we're the best.
It's mostly republicans who want to impress their automobile and oil masters, they hate trains because they believe their outdated garbage is up-to-date
@@Dqtube Yup, we voted to destroy our economy and our freedom to trade, travel and work in the largest trading area in the world. Meanwhile, we have spent ten years listening to idiots moaning about a few miles of railway, the stub end of which that will now actually be completed has been rendered useless by a corrupt government desperately trying unsuccessfully to cling to power. I think there is room for criticism to be honest 😀 I think Mexico has done far better!
a referendum with 2% turnout, and UN observers criticizing the government’s incredibly dodgy half-assed consultation of Indigenous assemblies and the running of this vote - yes a world model lol...
Prior to 1997 when most Mexican passenger service was suspended by Presidential order (except for the Copper Canyon train between Los Mochis & Chihuahua) there was passenger train service between Valladolid - Merida - Palenque - Veracruz - Mexico City. For the Tren Maya project, the old existing tracks & wood ties were pulled out and replaced with new tracks & concrete ties. So about 60% total of the new Tren Maya route was simply refurbishment of existing ROW.
@@MikeViker What was meant, was that only the "right of way" (ROW) was re-used, not the steel rails. Don't know for sure, but it's possible that the old rails were melted down and re-engineered to make the new "high grade steel" rails.
Hi, oustanding video, extremely interesting, thank you. I'm sure you'll be back to see the exciting future development, especially the "P'atal" sleeper train. Regards Barry.
Honestly I'm surprised that the tamal didn't come in plastic wrapping! Mexico is *obsessed* with single use plastics, so it's no surprise there is a lot of it on the train too. Just be happy the coffee wasn't in a styrofoam cup or that the plates weren't plastic. It is already much less plastic than is the norm in Mexico!
Thanks for the correct “tamal” instead of “tamale” as he called it, he must have picked up the American mistake during his years in the States (this is obviously kind of an obsession with me😊.)
Great video as always. Right now it feels like so many countries are moving forward with train services, while here in Britain where railways began, we seem to be going backwards. Poor punctuality, high fares, overcrowding on peak-hour services and trains that are less and less comfortable with rock-hard seats. It’s not the way to get commuters and other travellers out of their comfortable, air-conditioned vehicles. I’d love you to come and try the long-distance Class 800 series bi-mode trains which have had so much criticism since their introduction, or the Class 700s with their ‘ironing board’ seats that are dreadfully uncomfortable.
The fact that fucking Mexico is accomplishing this before the US should be something that the US should be embarrassed about, given all their talk about how it's such a """shithole""" country...
Are you sure of this ? The line between Merida and Cancun is straight and the catenary is armed for higher speed than 160km/h ? That's what I read online anyway. So I'm curious :-)
Thank your for visiting our new train. Even though in general i'm in favor of the train, I can't help but think that they should've gone for a high speed from the beggining, because as you mentioned, it could go up to 250km/hr in the future, with new trains I assume, resulting in more spending. You said that they went big from the start, but what are your thoughts about this?
I don't think so. I live in Merida and would love to have HSR but I don't think it was the correct choice for Yucatan. Higher-Speed-Rail from 160-240 kph is the best choice. Mexico City has more people than the entire peninsula so the CDMX to Guadalajara train should be HSR... not the Tren Maya.
It will depend on the future demand. If there's people who needs an express service point to point without intermediate stops, it will be feasible a tilting train over 200km/h.
To me, it’s not an issue. Building a true high-speed rail would be incredibly expensive and would have been unaffordable for the people of Yucatán to use the Tren Maya. Here, they’re being smart by creating a large network connecting all the major cities, and they still have room for improvement. For example, if they see that the Mérida-Cancún route is successful, they could consider increasing the speed to 200 km/h or 250 km/h. I was born in a country where high-speed rail completely replaced regular trains, and I can tell you it mainly benefits city dwellers in places like Paris, leaving others reliant on cars. That’s not the path Mexico should take-they’re doing it just right.
2 часа назад
Great video! Although you need to split the captions in smaller fragments, because it's covering all of the video on small screens.
glad to see one og my favorite chanels doing reviews in my country!!! i am no the neutral side about this project, sadly when videos about Tren Maya appears, mexican left and right wing fans start to show up and have a debate (fight) in the comments
@josephrodriguez5510 Bro can you do me a favor it's a humble request if you can send one piece of Mexican coke by post for me i will be very great full to you.
How was the internet? I think that, the lack of trains and the location are the main issues Some people complain about how long it takes, but I feel that after the sleeper cars are added that the problem will be solved And well the stations soon or later will be part of the city because it is expected those cities have a boom specially merida
If you insist on captions instead of voiceover, put less info into captions. "Ler's walk through our train", for example, carries no information whatsoever, can be removed.
Les coloris et les références à la culture Maya sont superbe tout autant que le projet en lui même 🙂 Seul bémol la tarification en fonction du pays d’origine que je trouve mesquine puisque c’est un projet subventionné par le budget de l’armée et au delà de ça le trajet a un coût de fonctionnement et de marge bénéficiaire qui devrait être identique pour tout le monde . Qu’on veuille choisir des services supplémentaires à bord ou de confort de classe c’est normal mais payer plus cher car on a un niveau de vie supérieur même si la démarche est louable je ne trouve pas ça correcte car dans ce cas on paye le trajet clairement plus cher .
Aunque me parece, viéndolo desde España, un ejemplo a seguir por toda la América, de polo a polo... tiene aún muchas esquinas que limar.... Una son los tiempos de recorrido, otra son los precios, y la última, la garantía de devolución de su cuantía al consumidor, si llega tarde, incluso alojamiento gratis en hotel si hubiera perdido trasbordo para otro destino, sea avion , otro tren, viaje en barco.... Un saludo 😊😊😊😊
Cierto. Conceptos muy europeos que se tendran que implementar. Hay que tambien entender que eso en las americas no es muy común. Cuando vivía en EE.UU era un lío para que una aerolínea me diera algo similar a lo que estas mencionando y inexistente en transporte ferroviario o carretera. Asi que si lo aplican en México seria un gran logro.
I couldn’t tell. are there at grade crossings? the problem with brightline florida and why the cali project is true high speed is not just the speed it’s that there are going to be zero at grade crossings. florida man crashes into brightline all the time because he won’t wait 30 seconds.
Exactly, it is a shame that they want to replicate that same mistake on the new train from Mexico City to Guadalajara passing through Queretaro, they want to put the stations far from the urban centers, if they make them outside they should connect them with the light rail metro.
Most big cities will have a light rail connection (San Francisco de Campeche, Merida.) These stations are also thought for the future city expansion. Also I'm sure people would have bitched if they bulldoze whole historical city block to put a train in the city center. That's a smart move from Tren Maya. Dumb if there was no transit project next to it but if there's a transit project with it. I call this very smart
@@SimplyRailway maybe it makes more sense to build an additional light rail line that will help cities to fight against cars then an underground train station but it would be the most rational solution, of course also a financial question
EL TREN ESTA MUY BIEN PERO ES UNA LASTIMA QUE ES SOLO PARA DISTANCIAS MEDIANAS A LARGAS PORQUE LAS ESTACIONES ESTAN MUY LEJOS LA PEOR ES LA DEL AEROPUERTO DE TULUM QUE DEBIO ESTAR SI O SI DENTRO DEL AEROPUERTO, IGUAL LA DE CANCUN, CAMPECHE ,MERIDA Y PALENQUE SE PERDIO UNA OPORTUNIDAD DE ORO !!
As a potential tourist from Europe, I see no reason to try to take this train when the ticket prices are higher for me than taking a plane from Mexico City to any airport in the Yucatán. The train stations, like the airports, are also outside the cities, so there is no time or financial saving here either. For locals it may be an improvement, but for others it looks like a tourist trap.
it works if you value comfort or you can take the bus which is more dangerous and more uncomfortable. just a week ago a bus crashed killing around 25 ppl in mexico.
@@MrRibonu It's definitely better than the bus. As a foreign tourist, I have a 90% likelihood of entering the country by flying into the capital city, and there is no point in travelling from the capital city to the starting point for this service instead of flying directly to the final destination. Especially if it's a cheaper and faster option.
Controversy, and protests are correct, Thibault. You know perfectly well tha this project is aimed at the tourism market, those with the economic power to pay the tickets for , not the common mexican with low wages.... So that objective of a train that can substitute roads and other polluting means of transport is completely lost. There's simply no way the common user of car and buses is ever going to use this kind of train, a really sad idea.
I strongly disagree with that. I’ve been on the Tren Maya, and there were maybe 10 tourists on board; the rest were locals. As I mentioned in the video, they’ve created an adaptive pricing system that allows locals to pay a lower price for the Tren Maya.
El tren Maya no está enfocado al turismo internacional, eso es una tontería. Está enfocado al traslado de mercancías y de personas, locales principalmente y ya después de eso si al turismo. Los anglosajones no pueden dejar de ser mentirosos y envidiosos.
Epic project, but unfortunately you can see in a second that even if the train is french, these are Chinese-made stations ... And this is a pure architectural nightmare, like all chinese-designed train station from Mexico to Kenya ... Numerobis-styled ...
China didn't have anything to do with this train . You mean that the stations are outside the cities? The first plan was to use the old stations in the cities but 2 problems happened. For decades ppl didn't respect the railroad and built their homes super close to them and they protested against construction inside the city and most of the tv news were on their side. Because of this people this happened.
Where did you get this information? They were built quickly and without flashy extras and not up to quality standards of industrial countries, yes. But that's due to budgetary constraints and the fact that the line was mainly built under supervision of the military. As far as I know there was not Chinese money or construction company involved.
They are not Chinese made stations lol 😂 The terminals and stations were designed taking inspiration from the local region they're located on, hence the reason why most terminals don't look alike. The only thing the Chinese did was ONE segment (227km) which is pretty small in comparison to the 1,500 km of rail that was built for the whole project.
@@junglist_ikon they are up to international quality standards, what are you talking about? They have been certified since last year done by European observers.
@@EU_Citizen it's a shame that you got brainwashed with all the negative press it got from pseudo environmentalists, especially since from the beginning of this project, it received the blessing and guidance of UN HABITAT to minimize the effects to the environment. 🤷🏽♂️
A fantastic whim, let's hope the next president keeps up these sorts of whims. As for the ecosystem, I don't think that word means what you think it does.
@@Capibaracapibara1992 oye tente respeto y no sea chismoso. El quien la caga es el "neutral" qué no puede hablar sin decir groserías en un canal de trenes. 😂
To be quite honest I highly doubt this will be any "rail revolution" at all. The majority of the main stations are built far away from the cities they "serve", heck they couldn't even make the airport stations right at the airports, even though they own the airports and the land around them. The trains are TOO SLOW to be competitive vs cars, u can go on the highway between Merida and Cancun way faster than the train, the advertised 160km/h speed, is reached only for very short periods of time and the train runs mostly at the same speed as the bus 90 km/h (the bus is cheaper and gets you closer to the city centers) U can see it clearly on the Cancun to Tulum stretch that runs next to the highway, the train goes as fast as the bus, add to the nightmare that there are only 1 or 2 trains between specific points through the day and you got a recipe for a classic white elephant, time will tell, but this: esta hecho con las patas y pensado con el qlo, la neta.
We Mexicans are proud of this big project in the Mayan Riviera ❤ we love our Tren Maya thanks for the report! ✨
Latin America is often overlooked in the transit community but has just as interesting transit as the rest of the world, like the Mi Teleférico gondola system in La Paz, Valparaíso's many funiculars, Panama Metro, Hershey Electric Railway interurban in Cuba (fun fact: Cuba was the very first Hispanic country to get trains in 1837; Spain itself wouldn't until 1848), or Buenos Aires's Subte! As you saw on the front of the trains, it says "Tsíimin K'áak". This is the Yucatec Maya word for train. Tsíimin means horse, and K'áak means fire, so literally translated, the train is a fire horse (or a Rapidash lol)! This translation makes sense considering the steam trains that historically ran there. As mentioned, Xiinbal means "to walk". For the other types, Janal means "to eat", and P'atal means "to stay". I know people will complain the stations are outside the cities, but this was done to avoid major construction complications and disruption to existing urban infrastructure. This tourist intercity train approach reminds me of the LIRR's Montauk Branch. The Montauk Branch provides year-round service for the locals of LI's South Shore and South Fork, but during the summer, it's pretty much a tourist train for those partying in the Hamptons, visiting the famous Montauk Point Lighthouse, or heading out to Fire Island by ferry (Fire Island communities are mainly car-free and isolated; ferries are a lifeline). The Cannonball provides express weekend summer service to the Hamptons, originating in 1899 between Long Island City and Montauk or Greenport via the Main Line (the consist heading to Greenport split off from the Montauk-bound consist at Manorville; track no longer exists between Manorville and the Montauk Branch), before service from NY Penn Station in Manhattan began in 1911. In 1934, the train permanently adopted its present-day route, a single train from Penn Station to Montauk along the Montauk Branch. The train used to have parlor cars, but they were discontinued after 1999 when they got C3 bi-levels. They then introduced a "Hamptons Reserve" thing in 2001 with some cars for reserved seating and complimentary bar service, but Hamptons Reserve ended in 2019.
The referendum for the Tren Maya back in December 2019 only had around two percent (100,940 people voted) of over three million show up to vote as most didn't have the financial means to go vote (though with the train, they'll have another option for transport for things like voting). Besides voters only being shown the positives and the low turnout, the majority of voters were municipal employees. All of this was criticized by the UN Human Rights High Commissioner's Mexico office. That said, it's amazing that this region of Mexico now has consistent intercity train service! It takes less time than by bus, the Tren Maya has electric shuttle buses in Cancun, Puerto Morelos, and Playa del Carmen called Conexión Intermodal Tren Maya that links the stations with different attractions, locals pay lower fares than tourists, it's grade-separated, and like the Montauk Branch, having this revolutionary service benefits both tourists and locals alike, offering locals modern service, job creation, and more economic opportunity, thus improving the quality of life there. Residents of 130 localities directly affected by the railroad route will benefit from "388 worksites and social actions", including the rehabilitation of pavements and roads, public spaces, electrical, sanitary and productive infrastructures, and housing. Mexico bringing back its intercity passenger trains is absolutely a revolution! And a double-tracked railway, especially electrified, is very much better than a highway. Would people rather see a polluting highway in the jungle, or an electric train that can take many drivers off roads? For those judging it for being built too quickly, look at China's rail success! The Beijing-Tianjin HSR opened in 2008, and by the middle of 2024, the network reached 46,000 kilometers! Expanding so quickly across a big country like China has paid off big time.
Gracias por tu experiencia de viaje en los dos trenes y las reseñas sobre tu punto de vista en mi pais , te falta que tengas experiencia en el TREN INTEROCEÁNICO
Mexico seriously getting better trains than most of the U.S. and Canada 😭
We just purchased 8 US metrolink old locomotives for another train so....
@@josephrodriguez5510 yes to start operating the isthmus train immediately, however there are plans to buy new trains in the near future.
@@josephrodriguez5510 is just for a short time, because this locomotives is just for use until the new CAF trains finish his construction in 3 years
Caltrain got some excellent Stadler KISS trains recently…
Nice concha! Conchas are said to be introduced to Mexico by French bakers. It is also believed that the idea came from a nobleman that dipped a piece of bread into some hot chocolate in front of many people and told them they should do it too. It's similar to Hong Kong's pineapple bun, which was inspired by the concha by scoring the sweet bread to look similar to a pineapple skin. Mexicans leave conchas as part of the offerings in an ofrenda during Día de los Muertos. Love the jaguar symbolism of the Tren Maya! In Mesoamerican communities, jaguars were one of the most revered animals. Every major Mesoamerican civilization had a jaguar god, many of which were important parts of their religion. These communities viewed jaguars as symbols of strength and power. For example, the Aztecs called the jaguar ocelotl and considered it to be the king of the animals. They named their most elite warriors “cuāuhocēlōtl”, a combination of the Aztec words for eagle and jaguar. They wore costumes that made them resemble these majestic cats and lead their communities both on the battlefield and at home. In Aztec culture, many believed that shamans could transform into jaguars at will and would become jaguars after they died. In the Maya civilization, the jaguar was known as balam or bolom' in many of the Mayan languages, and was used to symbolize warriors and the elite class for being brave, fierce and strong. The cat was associated with the underworld and its image was used to decorate tombs and grave-good vessels.
Jaguar comes from the Tupi-Guarani word yaguara meaning "wild beast that overcomes its prey at a bound". It is the biggest cat species in the Americas and the third largest in the world. Relative to their size, they have the strongest bite of the cat kingdom. The jaguar's powerful bite allows it to pierce the carapaces of turtles and tortoises, and to employ an unusual killing method, it bites directly through the skull of mammalian prey between the ears to deliver a fatal blow to the brain. It kills capybara by piercing its canine teeth through the temporal bones of its skull, breaking its zygomatic arch and mandible and penetrating its brain, often through the ears. While a jaguar’s bite force is only three-quarters as strong as a tiger’s bite force, jaguars have the stronger bites since they are considerably smaller (up to 170 cm long, not including their tails, which can grow up to 80 cm). Jaguars can’t quite reach the 70 miles per hour of the cheetah, but they reach a very respectable 50 mph. This makes them the second-fastest big cats in the world. Jaguars are excellent swimmers. Jaguars are excellent swimmers. They can hold their breath for as long as 15 to 20 minutes, and researchers have reported that the jaguars can hold their breath for as long as 1 hour approximately. They have adapted to living in wet environments, and hunt aquatic or semi-aquatic creatures like fish, turtles, caimans, and capybaras. They also hunt for deer, birds, opossums, and armadillos.
Controversy aside, it's just so frustrating how way too many politicians in the USA and Canada and their supporters would rather waste billions on useless highway expansions than even consider building new passenger rail projects as huge as Tren Maya.
EXACTLY! And their constituents ride along with them and then sit in traffic for hours in their daily commutes.
Because they are listening to their constituents. No one wants to sit on a train for hours and hours.
This. It is proof that it CAN be done, and if you build it they will ride it!
Brightline is slowly changing this stigma. They had over 2 million passengers on the Florida line in 2023. The ridership continues to grow and this year has already reached 2 million passengers at the end of September. Also, if the election goes normally, they'll have a chance to build and operate a line from the outskirts of LA to Vegas by the end of the decade.
@@draveedreal trains between viable points don’t take hours and hours. dallas and houston would be about 90 mins dtown to dtown.
I'm glad you got to the Train system down there! I am surprised it was the Military that financed this. A Remarkable Achievement!
Mexico has a lot of those who own cars, but they see the idea of transporting people long distance and competing with Low cost Jets work better here. I also noticed many got on and off the local areas, plus the Tourists at Chichen-Itza!
The military did not finance the project, the project was financed by the federal government, the military only built some sections of the line
@@TrenesytransportesGDL Thanks for the clarification.
Thibault, Thanks for this!
I love that Mexico has proven that these projects are not only possible in North America, but people will ride them if they are available.
I really enjoy your videos and subtitles. I do have feedback on the subtitles, when watching on a smaller screen the amount of subtitles hide half of the video. Maybe you can have one sentence at a time.
Noted ;-)
As part of the project, hotels, museums, and ecotourism parks were also built. Once the passenger line is finished, the tracks will be opened for freight transport (as well as a small expansion to a port).
Also, Alstom has a train construction plant in Mexico.
Mexico also found a ton of archeological sites and added new Museums with the artifacs found.
In fact were found even cities! and there's plenty of museums all over the route.
That is an awesome looking train thanks.🚂🚃🚃🇺🇲
Beautiful
Thank you very much for uploading this video, finally a review channel that was able to upload this travel experience on the Mayan Train, I couldn't find any because they are all from Politics talking about how good and bad it is (pure politics) and finally, a review perfect from this trip. I'm from Mexico but I don't live in that region of the country, so thank you very much for coming to this country and I hope you loved it.
I’m very excited to see you cover my birth country of Mexico in your videos. I wish we did more of that here in the United States like New York. We could use more rail transport here to get people out of their cars.
Cries in the United States
Nobody is crying in the usa . Its you who is crying 😂
@ovibiswas7849 ratio
@@ovibiswas7849let's be honest but cars are inferior to trains, Republicans just want you to give your automobile and oil masters their money. I'm not surprised that the low IQ religious can't critically think
Excellent! You will must to come back again when PATAL is in service! And make a long travel
Great video 👍🏻
Oh hell yeah I will :-)
C'est vraiment impressionnant cette infrastructure réalisée en si peu de temps ! Super reportage Thibault. Je suis vraiment content pour le Mexique, un pays qui va de l'avant avec la construction d'infrastructures durables et de qualité et qui prend les moyens pour éviter que la corruption ne vienne nuire a ce genre de projets. En plus, ça devrait aider à ce que les touristes des stations balnéaires aillent dépenser un peu leur argent à l'intérieur des terres et ainsi mieux distribuer cette manne. En espérant que ça va secouer un peu le Canada et les États-Unis... car disons le, notre transport ferroviaire au Canada est le pire de tout le G7. Dire qu'en 20 ans, la Chine à construit 46 000 km de LGV et que les É-U en arrachent avec leur projet californien de seulement 700 km qui ne sera pas en fonction avant 2035...
Or more likely: not until maybe 2050 for the LA to SF CAHSR route to begin operating, considering all of the planned tunneling that has not even begun the digging operations yet.
Mexico is putting the US and Canada to shame by building such an ambitious project in such a short time while we cannot build anything without decades of political struggle. This reminds me of when SNCF left CAHSR and went to Morocco because it was a "less politically dysfunctional state". I'm ashamed of the state of the political system here. We can't get anything done, and yet we think we're the best.
It's mostly republicans who want to impress their automobile and oil masters, they hate trains because they believe their outdated garbage is up-to-date
So Mexico had a referendum and decided to build a railway, which they opened within four years.
Meanwhile, in the UK...
Don't be so critical. You in the UK also had a referendum. At least that part works too. 🙃
Meanwhile, you can get almost anywere in the UK in train, we only have a few trains
@@Dqtube Yup, we voted to destroy our economy and our freedom to trade, travel and work in the largest trading area in the world. Meanwhile, we have spent ten years listening to idiots moaning about a few miles of railway, the stub end of which that will now actually be completed has been rendered useless by a corrupt government desperately trying unsuccessfully to cling to power.
I think there is room for criticism to be honest 😀
I think Mexico has done far better!
I am mexican, and no,we are still a 3rd world shithole. I wish i were english. @@conradharcourt8263
a referendum with 2% turnout, and UN observers criticizing the government’s incredibly dodgy half-assed consultation of Indigenous assemblies and the running of this vote - yes a world model lol...
Prior to 1997 when most Mexican passenger service was suspended by Presidential order (except for the Copper Canyon train between Los Mochis & Chihuahua) there was passenger train service between Valladolid - Merida - Palenque - Veracruz - Mexico City. For the Tren Maya project, the old existing tracks & wood ties were pulled out and replaced with new tracks & concrete ties. So about 60% total of the new Tren Maya route was simply refurbishment of existing ROW.
Bs, it's all brand new with high grade steel and soldering capable of 250km/h
@@MikeViker What was meant, was that only the "right of way" (ROW) was re-used, not the steel rails. Don't know for sure, but it's possible that the old rails were melted down and re-engineered to make the new "high grade steel" rails.
Très bonne video
That train looks very comfortable!! Great job!
After the Dia de los Muertos here comes Tren Maya
And yet miss PATAL And Janal
Sleeper train and restaurant
If only the US and Canada could make that kind of progress on passenger rail expansions.
Video muito bom simplys bonito trem do México
Hi, oustanding video, extremely interesting, thank you. I'm sure you'll be back to see the exciting future development, especially the "P'atal" sleeper train. Regards Barry.
Honestly I'm surprised that the tamal didn't come in plastic wrapping! Mexico is *obsessed* with single use plastics, so it's no surprise there is a lot of it on the train too. Just be happy the coffee wasn't in a styrofoam cup or that the plates weren't plastic. It is already much less plastic than is the norm in Mexico!
Thanks for the correct “tamal” instead of “tamale” as he called it, he must have picked up the American mistake during his years in the States (this is obviously kind of an obsession with me😊.)
Great video as always. Right now it feels like so many countries are moving forward with train services, while here in Britain where railways began, we seem to be going backwards. Poor punctuality, high fares, overcrowding on peak-hour services and trains that are less and less comfortable with rock-hard seats. It’s not the way to get commuters and other travellers out of their comfortable, air-conditioned vehicles. I’d love you to come and try the long-distance Class 800 series bi-mode trains which have had so much criticism since their introduction, or the Class 700s with their ‘ironing board’ seats that are dreadfully uncomfortable.
Great trip. Looks like few of RUclipsrs trying this train recently.
Did you notice it? the catenary posts are the same like in the high speed rail in Spain and Saudi Arabia! - The EAC350!
They are and the catenary itself, the rails, the concrete tiles, everything is high speed rail class.
And yes, this line is ready for high speed trains up to 250km/h already! 🚄🚄🚄🚄🚄✨
That is not true, according to the government of Mexico and Alstom, those roads are made for a maximum of 200 kilometers per hour.
The fact that fucking Mexico is accomplishing this before the US should be something that the US should be embarrassed about, given all their talk about how it's such a """shithole""" country...
Are you sure of this ? The line between Merida and Cancun is straight and the catenary is armed for higher speed than 160km/h ? That's what I read online anyway. So I'm curious :-)
Thank your for visiting our new train. Even though in general i'm in favor of the train, I can't help but think that they should've gone for a high speed from the beggining, because as you mentioned, it could go up to 250km/hr in the future, with new trains I assume, resulting in more spending.
You said that they went big from the start, but what are your thoughts about this?
I don't think so. I live in Merida and would love to have HSR but I don't think it was the correct choice for Yucatan. Higher-Speed-Rail from 160-240 kph is the best choice. Mexico City has more people than the entire peninsula so the CDMX to Guadalajara train should be HSR... not the Tren Maya.
The yucatan penisula is not that populated like the center of mexico.
@@GrantMcWilliams Yet the CDMX-Gdl is expected to be 160km/hr max as well! They are currently doing the studies, so I hope they change that
It will depend on the future demand. If there's people who needs an express service point to point without intermediate stops, it will be feasible a tilting train over 200km/h.
To me, it’s not an issue. Building a true high-speed rail would be incredibly expensive and would have been unaffordable for the people of Yucatán to use the Tren Maya. Here, they’re being smart by creating a large network connecting all the major cities, and they still have room for improvement. For example, if they see that the Mérida-Cancún route is successful, they could consider increasing the speed to 200 km/h or 250 km/h.
I was born in a country where high-speed rail completely replaced regular trains, and I can tell you it mainly benefits city dwellers in places like Paris, leaving others reliant on cars. That’s not the path Mexico should take-they’re doing it just right.
Great video! Although you need to split the captions in smaller fragments, because it's covering all of the video on small screens.
you need to get one of those window suction mounts
Really Nice and they should electrify this route
700km will be fully electrified.
glad to see one og my favorite chanels doing reviews in my country!!! i am no the neutral side about this project, sadly when videos about Tren Maya appears, mexican left and right wing fans start to show up and have a debate (fight) in the comments
I have read this in many places that Mexican coke taste is better than every where did you find any difference?
It does, its made with sugar cane, I live near the US border and know both
@josephrodriguez5510 Bro can you do me a favor it's a humble request if you can send one piece of Mexican coke by post for me i will be very great full to you.
I live in the midwest, we can get Mexican Coke here(in glass bottles!)...
all coke sold outside the us is made with sugar instead of corn syrup. just look for the heavy old fashioned glass bottles. it’s available nationally.
@@josephrodriguez5510not necessarily cane sugar just real sugar from cane or beets or a combination of both.
Is the gauge the same as in the U S ?? Train seemed to be very quiet and smooth.
Mexico needs more trains and less car accidents
Seeing those seats, they look very similar to the models used on ICE 4 trains in Germany… how would you say do they compare?
Way better padding that's for sure!
Novel approach having the train run by armed forces.
Hey thibault how was the tren maya
How was the internet?
I think that, the lack of trains and the location are the main issues
Some people complain about how long it takes, but I feel that after the sleeper cars are added that the problem will be solved
And well the stations soon or later will be part of the city because it is expected those cities have a boom specially merida
The WiFi does not work yet but the cellular service was working just fine.
Your captions are blocking 1/3 - 1/2 the screen in many instances. A real detraction...
You can modify the size of the caption.
If you insist on captions instead of voiceover, put less info into captions. "Ler's walk through our train", for example, carries no information whatsoever, can be removed.
Les coloris et les références à la culture Maya sont superbe tout autant que le projet en lui même 🙂 Seul bémol la tarification en fonction du pays d’origine que je trouve mesquine puisque c’est un projet subventionné par le budget de l’armée et au delà de ça le trajet a un coût de fonctionnement et de marge bénéficiaire qui devrait être identique pour tout le monde . Qu’on veuille choisir des services supplémentaires à bord ou de confort de classe c’est normal mais payer plus cher car on a un niveau de vie supérieur même si la démarche est louable je ne trouve pas ça correcte car dans ce cas on paye le trajet clairement plus cher .
Es barato en general, yo diría que es MÁS barato para los locales y eso es bueno, el proyecto debe ayudar a la economía local
Holaaaaaa!
Aunque me parece, viéndolo desde España, un ejemplo a seguir por toda la América, de polo a polo... tiene aún muchas esquinas que limar....
Una son los tiempos de recorrido, otra son los precios, y la última, la garantía de devolución de su cuantía al consumidor, si llega tarde, incluso alojamiento gratis en hotel si hubiera perdido trasbordo para otro destino, sea avion , otro tren, viaje en barco....
Un saludo 😊😊😊😊
Exacto es un proyecto que apenas está empezando y sigue en Pre-apertura, ya veremos cuando esté totalmente terminado y en operación todos los trenes
Cierto. Conceptos muy europeos que se tendran que implementar. Hay que tambien entender que eso en las americas no es muy común. Cuando vivía en EE.UU era un lío para que una aerolínea me diera algo similar a lo que estas mencionando y inexistente en transporte ferroviario o carretera. Asi que si lo aplican en México seria un gran logro.
The food wrapped in plastic was very "un-Mexican" but otherwise, it looks like a good trip.
I couldn’t tell. are there at grade crossings? the problem with brightline florida and why the cali project is true high speed is not just the speed it’s that there are going to be zero at grade crossings. florida man crashes into brightline all the time because he won’t wait 30 seconds.
It's entirely grade separated. The entire 1500 km.
No single crossing anywhere.
Great line but there is one problem: stations are located tooo far away from cities, like airports and it makes the trains less attractive
Exactly, it is a shame that they want to replicate that same mistake on the new train from Mexico City to Guadalajara passing through Queretaro, they want to put the stations far from the urban centers, if they make them outside they should connect them with the light rail metro.
@@TrenesytransportesGDLde donde sacas esa info, hasta donde tengo entendido se usara buenavista y no han dicho nada de las estaciones de gdl
Most big cities will have a light rail connection (San Francisco de Campeche, Merida.)
These stations are also thought for the future city expansion. Also I'm sure people would have bitched if they bulldoze whole historical city block to put a train in the city center. That's a smart move from Tren Maya. Dumb if there was no transit project next to it but if there's a transit project with it. I call this very smart
@@SimplyRailway maybe it makes more sense to build an additional light rail line that will help cities to fight against cars then an underground train station but it would be the most rational solution, of course also a financial question
Bien sur, toujours un BAN-GER !!
Cancell all public transportation and walk, or just travel on horses.😂
It's a shame that they don't have any faster trains, because of they had it would be an improvement!..
Kereta api indonesia😙😚
EL TREN ESTA MUY BIEN
PERO ES UNA LASTIMA QUE ES SOLO PARA DISTANCIAS MEDIANAS A LARGAS PORQUE LAS ESTACIONES ESTAN MUY LEJOS
LA PEOR ES LA DEL AEROPUERTO DE TULUM QUE DEBIO ESTAR SI O SI DENTRO DEL AEROPUERTO, IGUAL LA DE CANCUN, CAMPECHE ,MERIDA Y PALENQUE
SE PERDIO UNA OPORTUNIDAD DE ORO !!
As a potential tourist from Europe, I see no reason to try to take this train when the ticket prices are higher for me than taking a plane from Mexico City to any airport in the Yucatán. The train stations, like the airports, are also outside the cities, so there is no time or financial saving here either. For locals it may be an improvement, but for others it looks like a tourist trap.
it works if you value comfort or you can take the bus which is more dangerous and more uncomfortable. just a week ago a bus crashed killing around 25 ppl in mexico.
Im mexican I do see this as a great point for us, it will prevent gentrification of the system.
@@MrRibonu It's definitely better than the bus. As a foreign tourist, I have a 90% likelihood of entering the country by flying into the capital city, and there is no point in travelling from the capital city to the starting point for this service instead of flying directly to the final destination. Especially if it's a cheaper and faster option.
@@MrRibonuThat accident happened in a mountainous area in the north of Mexico, in the south of Mexico there are not even mountains.
@@TrenesytransportesGDL that's irrelevant to my point. I'm saying that trains will always be safer and more comfortable than buses.
Controversy, and protests are correct, Thibault. You know perfectly well tha this project is aimed at the tourism market, those with the economic power to pay the tickets for , not the common mexican with low wages.... So that objective of a train that can substitute roads and other polluting means of transport is completely lost. There's simply no way the common user of car and buses is ever going to use this kind of train, a really sad idea.
I strongly disagree with that. I’ve been on the Tren Maya, and there were maybe 10 tourists on board; the rest were locals. As I mentioned in the video, they’ve created an adaptive pricing system that allows locals to pay a lower price for the Tren Maya.
El tren Maya no está enfocado al turismo internacional, eso es una tontería. Está enfocado al traslado de mercancías y de personas, locales principalmente y ya después de eso si al turismo. Los anglosajones no pueden dejar de ser mentirosos y envidiosos.
Pls speak in English. The captions covers the most of the video and you feel irritated to watch the video.
Epic project, but unfortunately you can see in a second that even if the train is french, these are Chinese-made stations ... And this is a pure architectural nightmare, like all chinese-designed train station from Mexico to Kenya ... Numerobis-styled ...
China didn't have anything to do with this train . You mean that the stations are outside the cities? The first plan was to use the old stations in the cities but 2 problems happened. For decades ppl didn't respect the railroad and built their homes super close to them and they protested against construction inside the city and most of the tv news were on their side. Because of this people this happened.
Where did you get this information? They were built quickly and without flashy extras and not up to quality standards of industrial countries, yes. But that's due to budgetary constraints and the fact that the line was mainly built under supervision of the military. As far as I know there was not Chinese money or construction company involved.
They are not Chinese made stations lol 😂 The terminals and stations were designed taking inspiration from the local region they're located on, hence the reason why most terminals don't look alike. The only thing the Chinese did was ONE segment (227km) which is pretty small in comparison to the 1,500 km of rail that was built for the whole project.
"chine made stations" HHAHAHAHA what?!
@@junglist_ikon they are up to international quality standards, what are you talking about? They have been certified since last year done by European observers.
An ecological disaster, I don't feel like watching your video this time...sorry!
Well, your coment is not going to change a thing
HOUSE!
@@EU_Citizen it's a shame that you got brainwashed with all the negative press it got from pseudo environmentalists, especially since from the beginning of this project, it received the blessing and guidance of UN HABITAT to minimize the effects to the environment. 🤷🏽♂️
If you watch it maybe you'd realize that your opinion was not actually correct. Education and changing one's mind is a good thing if you're wrong.
Don't worry, the human race won't survive for much longer. Once we're gone the planet will be absolutely fine and can recover to its natural state 😂
👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻 This train was a whim of the "president" and is a disaster for the ecosystem.
No
Surely where did you live before there was desertic… 😂😂😂😂😂😂
A fantastic whim, let's hope the next president keeps up these sorts of whims. As for the ecosystem, I don't think that word means what you think it does.
Personally I think moving out of the caves was a mistake!
@@GrantMcWilliams Oh, that settles it then
🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
Pobrecito, no pudiste digerir bien el PAN qué te tragaste verdad? 😂
vrga, ya se habian tardado los fachos y chairos en aparecer en un video, ambos bandos la cagan este tipo de videos!
@@Capibaracapibara1992 oye tente respeto y no sea chismoso. El quien la caga es el "neutral" qué no puede hablar sin decir groserías en un canal de trenes. 😂
Hasta que porfin veo el comentario de un maldito PRIANISTA
To be quite honest I highly doubt this will be any "rail revolution" at all. The majority of the main stations are built far away from the cities they "serve", heck they couldn't even make the airport stations right at the airports, even though they own the airports and the land around them. The trains are TOO SLOW to be competitive vs cars, u can go on the highway between Merida and Cancun way faster than the train, the advertised 160km/h speed, is reached only for very short periods of time and the train runs mostly at the same speed as the bus 90 km/h (the bus is cheaper and gets you closer to the city centers) U can see it clearly on the Cancun to Tulum stretch that runs next to the highway, the train goes as fast as the bus, add to the nightmare that there are only 1 or 2 trains between specific points through the day and you got a recipe for a classic white elephant, time will tell, but this: esta hecho con las patas y pensado con el qlo, la neta.
Ni soy chairo ni siquiera de izquierda, pero me gustan los trenes y vete a c a tu m con tu politica...a nadie le importa, no te subas y ya...