Ferromex ( syllabic abbreviation of Ferrocarril Mexicano or "Mexican Railway") is a private rail consortium that operates the largest (by mileage)

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

with combined mileage (Ferromex +

Ferrosur The Ferrocarril del Sureste , commonly known as Ferrosur, is a railway that serves the southeastern regions of Mexico. The company was formed in 1998 following the privatization of Mexico's railways. Ferrosur took over the southeast concession. ...

) of and is part of the North American

Class I railroad In the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, st ...

Description

Ferromex began operating on February 19, 1998, following the privatization of most of the government-owned railways by then

President of Mexico The president of Mexico ( es, link=no, Presidente de México), officially the president of the United Mexican States ( es, link=no, Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Co ...

Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León (; born 27 December 1951) is a Mexican economist and politician. He was 61st president of Mexico from 1 December 1994 to 30 November 2000, as the last of the uninterrupted 71-year line of Mexican presidents from t ...

. Ferromex operates more than of track and interconnects five major inland Mexican cities, five cities along the border with the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, four seaports on the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

, and one more on the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

. Currently,

Grupo México Grupo México is a Mexican conglomerate that operates through the following divisions: Mining (Minera Mexico), Transportation ( GMxT), Infrastructure and Fundacion Grupo Mexico. Its mining Division is the leading Copper producer in Mexico and t ...

owns 74% and

Union Pacific Corporation The Union Pacific Corporation (Union Pacific) is a publicly traded railroad holding company. It was incorporated in Utah in 1969 and is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the parent company of the current, Delaware-registered, form of the ...

owns 26% of the company. The Ferromex system operates 9,610 km of Ferromex tracks plus of Ferrosur tracks.

Passenger services

Ferromex hosts the

Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico The Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico (Chihuahua-Pacific Railway), also known as El Chepe from its reporting mark CHP, is a major rail line in northwest Mexico, linking Chihuahua City, to Los Mochis and its port, Topolobampo. It crosses the Si ...

"ChePe" railroad, a tourist line that runs through the

Copper Canyon Copper Canyon (Spanish: Barrancas del Cobre) is a group of six distinct canyons in the Sierra Madre Occidental in the southwestern part of the state of Chihuahua in northwestern Mexico that is in size. The canyons were formed by six rivers tha ...

. Ferromex also operates the

Tequila Express The Tequila Express is a Mexican regional passenger train service that operates from Guadalajara, Jalisco, to the Sauza Tequila distillery in the municipality of Tequila. The municipality of Tequila is located appr ...

, which runs from Guadalajara to a

tequila Tequila (; ) is a distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands ('' Los Altos de Jalisco'') of the central western Mexican s ...

distillery in

Amatitán Amatitán is the head of a municipality in the Mexican state of Jalisco, and is home to one of the world's largest tequila distilleries. It is the location of “La Hacienda de San José del Refugio”, a distillery which makes “ Tequila Herrad ...

Merger with Ferrosur

In November 2005,

, owner of Ferromex, purchased Infraestructura y Transportes Ferroviarios, the parent company of Ferrosur, another of Mexico's Class I railroads, in a stock transaction. The Mexican Federal Competition Commission (CFC) had rejected a proposed 2002 merger of Ferromex and Ferrosur amid opposition from Ferromex competitor Grupo Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM). Following the November 2005 purchase of Ferrosur by Grupo México,

Kansas City Southern de México Kansas City Southern de México (KCSM), formerly Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM), is a company dedicated to freight transportation using rail in the northeastern part of Mexico. KCSM is fully owned and operated by Kansas City Southern ...

(KCSM), successor to TFM, petitioned the Mexican government to block the merger of Ferrosur and Ferromex. The CFC rejected the merger in June 2006 stating that the merger would have led to excessive concentration in the railway industry to the detriment of consumers and competing shippers. However, in March 2011, a tribunal ruled in Grupo México's favor, and the merger was permitted.

Rolling stock

In January 2011, Ferromex ordered 44 new

SD70ACe The EMD SD70 is a series of diesel-electric locomotives produced by the US company Electro-Motive Diesel in response to the GE Dash 9-44CW. Production commenced in late 1992 and since then over 5,700 units have been produced; most of these are t ...

locomotives from EMD, its first order since 2006.

Other

Grupo Mexico Transportes, with Fundacion Grupo México, operates Dr. Vagon, a

hospital train A hospital train is a railway train with carriages equipped for the provision of healthcare. Historically this has ranged from trains equipped to transport wounded soldiers, with basic nursing and first aid facilities on board, to fully equipped ...

that offers free, complete healthcare for hard to reach communities in Mexico.

References

External links

*
MEXLIST - The group for Mexican railway information
Railway companies of Mexico Railway companies established in 1998 Privatized companies in Mexico Standard gauge railways in Mexico Mexican brands Mexican companies established in 1998 {{Mexico-rail-transport-stub