Mayan train leaves a scar in Mexico's jungle

Mexico's new tourist railroad, parts of which are now due to open, cuts a long swathe through the lush greenery of previously untouched nature. Environmentalists criticize the mammoth project on the Yucatán Peninsula and a German tour guide documents the damage.

Speleologist Roberto Rojo knows the jungle well, but he doesn't like what he is currently seeing on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. A long, deforested swathe runs through the jungle south of the vacation resort of Cancún. Thousands of large construction pillars penetrate the ground every 15 meters. Soon a tourist train will run through the rainforest here. After three and a half years of construction, the first part of the 1554-kilometre "Tren Maya" rail network is due to open.

"The Mayan Train will bring economic and social development to the south-east," promises President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The train is set to transport millions of tourists through the Yucatán Peninsula. However, Rojo only sees destruction at the dusty construction site near Playa del Carmen. López Obrador's megaproject is cutting up the jungle and causing irreversible damage to the ecosystem, says the biologist and activist. "Down there is the aquifer on which all plants, animals and people in the region depend."

The train will initially run between San Francisco de Campeche on the Gulf of Mexico and Cancún in the Caribbean. The route is 473 kilometers long and runs partly on a former railroad line. By the end of February, the entire network with 34 stops in five states should be complete, including the most controversial sections through karst areas and rainforest.

Only the Amazon rainforest is bigger

Elias Siebenborn from Hainichen near Chemnitz has lived in the region for twelve years and works as a travel guide. In his spare time, he documents the effects of the "Tren Maya". Using a GPS device, he places himself in the middle of the wilderness and flies his drone over the dense vegetation to the route of the railroad. "You can see it here," he says, showing the drone's live image: a kilometer-long swath cuts through the lush green of the previously untouched nature.

The German has already documented 121 small, medium and large underground caves along the railroad line between Playa del Carmen and Tulum. "I used to go into the jungle to photograph birds," he says. But when construction began, he started recording the damage. "I would never have thought how extreme it was." Underground rivers flow through the cave system all the way to the sea.

The Selva Maya in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize is the largest rainforest area in the Americas after the Amazon. This is where the Mayan civilization once built mighty cities such as Chichén Itzá. The tourist train will connect numerous ruins at a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour. The tracks are also intended for normal passenger and freight trains.

Managed by the military

Manuel Andrew has high expectations. The 48-year-old works as a porter in a hotel near the future train station in Cancún. "Communities that had fallen into oblivion will now experience a boost from tourism because the train will stop there," he says. Local residents would be able to sell their crafts directly to tourists or work in the hotels. "What else do the opponents of the train propose to get people to move forward? If they come up with another project that creates economic opportunities without harming the rainforest, I'll go along with it too."

The cost of the Mayan Train, which is managed by the military, has tripled to 500 billion pesos (27 billion euros) since construction began. European companies are also involved in the project. A subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn has been commissioned to provide consultancy services. The armed forces are also building six hotels, one of which is in the Calakmul biosphere reserve, where there are archaeological ruins. Some of the last jaguars in Mexico live there. Communal land has been expropriated or bought up and the real estate business is booming.

No other country in the world has implemented such a large rail project in such a short time, says Mexico's President López Obrador. His critics agree with him on this point: the construction was carried out too quickly, with a lot of improvisation and without the obligatory environmental protection reports, says Aarón Hernández from the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) in Cancún.

When there were more and more complaints against the project, the left-wing nationalist head of state declared the Mayan train a matter of national security under the control of the military so that it could not be stopped. The project has also led to divisions within communities. Human rights activists also criticize the militarization of the region.

"New border" with the United States

In Mérida, the capital of the economically up-and-coming state of Yucatán, the mood is upbeat. The city, which is on the first route of the train, is preparing for more tourists. The street paving is being renewed, house facades are being repainted and a gastronomic corridor is being built. The state with its Mayan communities and haciendas is considered the safest in Mexico.

But the development plans are not just limited to tourism. According to Governor Mauricio Vila, Yucatán wants to become Mexico's "new border with the USA" - in an economic sense. A port on the Gulf of Mexico is being expanded for the export of goods and new industrial parks are being built. The Mayan Train rail network is linked to another project of the López Obrador government - the Industrial Interoceanic Corridor between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

The Mayan Train is part of an economic plan that is being implemented at the expense of natural resources, the people and their culture, says activist Rojo in Playa del Carmen. "Some people think we live from tourism. But we live from nature, which attracts tourists. If we ignore nature, we will have neither tourism nor nature and therefore no income."