FERROMEX CELEBRATES 25 YEARS AS ONE OF THE MOST PRODUCTIVE RAILROADS IN NORTH AMERICA

A quarter of a century later, we look back on what brought us to where we are today.

By the end of the 20th century, the lack of maintenance and investment had led the Mexican National Railways to a serious situation of deterioration.

Eighty-one percent of the tracks needed rehabilitation work and the rolling stock was not in much better condition.

In the late 1980s, state-owned companies stopped transporting products by rail due to high costs and ine cient service. And in the nineties, the government cancelled the passenger transportation service due to its high cost and excessive travel times.

Ferromex is Mexico's most important freight railroad, one of eight Class 1 railroads in North America. On average it has the lowest market rates in America.

To overcome these conditions and to relaunch the railroad service in the country, the federal government proposed the privatization of the public company.

To this end, in February 1995, President Ernesto Zedillo modified Article 28 of the Constitution to allow private investment in the railroad sector and, in May of the same year, the Railroad Service Regulatory Law was published, which established the regulatory framework for granting concessions to such investors.

In order to carry out its privatization, the Mexican railroad system was divided into five sections. The first section tendered was the Northern Pacific Railroad (7164 km), together with the Ojinaga-Topolobampo short line (Chihuahua-Pacific Railroad, 943 km) and the Nacozari short line (320 km), totaling 8,427 km of railroad track.

In 1997 Grupo Ferroviario Mexicano, a company integrated by Grupo México (74%), with an investment of US$921 million at present value, won the concession (Ingenieros Civiles y Asociados (13%) and Union Pacific de México (13%).

The following year, Grupo México created the subsidiary Ferrocarril Mexicano (Ferromex), through which it began to operate the assigned lines.

GMXT's fleet has more than

- 800 locomotives

- 26,300 railroad cars

The GMXT network has more than - 11,000 km of track, 80% of which is reconstructed to move longer and heavier trains at higher speeds.

We have invested more than - US$8 billion in infrastructure, rolling stock and telecommunications.

With a track record that predates even Ferromex, Indalecio recalls all the di culties faced during the first weeks of Ferromex's operation: "Everything was very complicated because the operation was paralyzed. In addition, we had to rehire or hire new people. In February 1998, to restart the operation, it took us about ten days just to get the trains out, because we had to explore the entire track, pay attention to landslides and in general to the train passing by ".

It was clear from the beginning, that the company was committed to the project: "We had to make investments to renovate the most central sections because we found the tracks very a ected. It was nothing more and nothing less than the safety of the passage of trains". Today, twenty-five years later, the challenges we had to face to become the most important railroad company in the country and one of the most important in North America could be forgotten.

The new airfield, carried out by the Infrastructure Division, will be key to Sonora's connectivity and the productivity of Grupo México's projects in the state.