The Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo (FONATUR) has awarded a contract to provide service for three years for the Tren Maya project in Mexico to the consortium made up of two companies from Mitma Group, Renfe and the engineering company Ineco and its subsidiary Inecomex; and by the German company DB Engineering & Consulting.

The Tren Maya project, which is one of the priorities of the Mexican Government for the transport of passengers and goods, will connect the main regions of the Yucatan Peninsula: Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco, Quintana Roo and Yucatan.

The consortium will be the "shadow operator" of the contracting entity, FONATUR, in the implementation of the project, providing support during the construction period and will be responsible for defining the operational requirements and maintenance tasks.

This consortium will also supervise the manufacture, delivery and commissioning of the rolling stock and all of the systems until the commercial service test period. The total amount of the contract is 13.5 million euros.

In Phase 1, the Tren Maya will connect stations from Palenque to Cancun (sections 1-4), and will be completed in Phase 2 connecting the stations from Cancun to Escarcega (sections 5-7).

The length of the sections of phase 1 totals 892 km and the sections of phase 2, 662 km, for a total of approximately 1,550 km. The total cost of the project for this route will be approximately 6.5 billion euros. FONATUR's commitment is to have the first section of the project up and running by 2023.

With the Tren Maya project, Ineco and Renfe become part of the companies with "shadow-operator" services, which are increasingly in demand by the world's railway operation authorities, and position themselves for other similar opportunities such as the operation of the California High Speed Train or as the shadow operator of Rail Baltica.

This contract award is in line with one of Renfe's main objectives, which is to break into new markets in order to continue advancing in its internationalisation process, one of the basic pillars of Renfe's Strategic Plan, following its participation in Saudi Arabia and the United States; and also reinforces and strengthens Ineco's presence on the five continents.