Twenty years ago, there was only one railroad in Mexico, which was run by a public agency and broken into three regional classes. At that time, there needed to be tremendous improvements to rail service, engines and cars, and to key infrastructure such as bridges and tracks. Then in 1995, the Mexican government announced that a railroad privatization project would begin.

The private railroad companies that now manage the railroad lines currently have a 50-year concession from the federal government to operate them (while the land that the railroads operate on is still government property). With the private sector’s takeover of railroad operations, dedicated investments started to make real improvements to the entire system. And to date, over 5 Billion U.S. dollars from these private companies have been invested into the Mexican rail system.