The railway transport sustainability in Mexico : Europe and Mexico perspective

The use of railway transportation for satisfying the transport needs of goods in Mexico is less intense than in developed countries, such as Germany. Mexican performance measures based upon the railway length per capita (intensity), or the railway length per square km of the country surface (density), are well behind from corresponding indicators for Germany, in such a way that the length of the railway infrastructure of Mexico should be, at least, doubled in order to reach a comparable intensity rate as that of Germany. In this paper, the benefits from transferring the whole transportation of goods from road to railway, is discussed. The benefits include a remarkable reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The feasibility for the electrical infrastructure to provide the necessary energy is further shown, while the economic feasibility of such situation is analyzed on the basis of the federal budget of Mexico. According to these estimations, the investment in railway infrastructure is feasible, while the electrical installed capacity is enough to satisfy an all-electric system.