3 Exciting Destinations Travelers Will Be Able To Visit From Cancun On The New Maya Train

[Vogon_Glory]

1. Re: The New Maya Train

Last edited Mon Oct 9, 2023, 08:35 PM - Edit history (1)

The rail journey should prove more comfortable than it used to be.

My parents took the train to the Yucatán back in the late 1950’s. At one point they had to load their auto onto a flatcar because there wasn’t a passable road to Merida back then.

That might seem rugged to today’s pampered travelers, but the narrow-gauge trains were worse. Those rail lines weren’t built to a high engineering standard, the route was twistier, the passenger coaches were ancient, unairconditioned and slow. Very slow. It took a long time to get from here to there and the Yucatán used to be one of the most impoverished parts of Mexico.

The railways were once steam-powered but were later dieselization. Steam lingered on the narrow gauge until the 1960’s, but eventually the surviving narrow-gauge lines were dieselized too.

The narrow gauge is gone but a few relics might survive.

Two of the former Unidos de Yucatán steam locomotives were acquired by Disney and ran at Disney World in Florida.