>Posted on 09/29/2024 10:46:18 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Mexico is building the Interoceanic Corridor railway to compete with the Panama Canal and ease international trade.
The new railway would aim to relieve the burden on the Panama Canal, which is struggling to receive shipments due to a drought. The Panama Canal has raised toll prices nearly eight-fold, and water levels at an all-time low make ship passage through the canal challenging.
Mexico’s Interoceanic Corridor
The $7.5 billion dollar project will stretch 188 miles across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The railway will move containers from ships to the train and transport them to ships on the other side that would complete the orders. The project is actually the revival of an old one, as the railway was opened in 1907, but it was abandoned after the Panama Canal went into service.
The Interoceanic Corridor will also serve to tackle poverty in Mexico. The railway’s path will weave through the Mexican states of Veracruz and Oaxaca. Both states suffer from some of the worst poverty in Mexico, so the Interoceanic Corridor could bring in much needed funding to improve infrastructure.
Passengers will be able to board the Interoceanic Corridor trains along with the shipping containers. The train will have ten stops across both states, with ports in the Atlantic and Pacific. The hope for the International Corridor is that it will link up to Tren Maya lines and eventually be able to reach Cancún.
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According to Mexstrategy, The Mexican government has invested $6 billion, and the project has received about $2 billion from outside investors.
Competing with the Panama Canal
The Panama Canal has been the most crucial path for trade between the West and East for more than a century. It’s path through the country of Panama shortens the trips cargo vessels have to make by thousands of miles. The canal has reigned supreme since its inception, but now it’s vulnerable to projects like the Interoceanic Corridor.
Panama has been plagued with a drought in recent years, leaving Lake Gatúm with all-time low water levels. Lake Gatúm is vital to the Panama Canal, as the canal’s lock systems rely on the water from the lake to function. The conditions have left shipping companies with the choice of having to wait out at sea for up to two weeks or pay millions to skip the line and get across.
With the Interoceanic Corridor, companies could potentially not have to deal with the worsening conditions surrounding the Panama Canal. However, it is unclear whether the Interoceanic Corridor will be faster than the Panama Canal, as it takes time to pack and unpack ships and trains. Moreover, trains cannot carry as much as shipping vessels, reducing the amount of cargo that could be transported by railway.
In regards to competition, the Panama Canal said in a statement:
“This route remains the top choice for shippers because the Panama Canal maintains expedited access to more than 180 maritime routes that connect 170 countries via 1,920 ports. We are always monitoring potential projects that could compete with our route, though we remain confident in our service and are making investments to strengthen our services for years to come.”
Regardless of the competition, the Interoceanic Corridor could ease the burden on the Panama Canal, taking an estimated five percent of what normally goes through the canal.
More b.s. in the story.
Its not a drought.
They built the ‘new locks’ and operate both sets of locks now. Panama was told it had to increase the size of Gatun Lake to accommodate the new volume. Panama did nothing.
Not enough water to supply the new expansion.
Simple.
>The Federales better guard that new rail line well; plenty of banditos willing to rob that train from time to time....just sayin’.
Now, if they just put up a huge fence on either side of the tracks to prevent accidental deaths they can solve our illegal problem at the same time. :)
Putting loaded ships on rail cars can be tricky.....🤔
So where would the water to increase the size of the lake in question come from?
Lessee...
Ship arrives Mexico
Ship unloads
ship deadheads back to where it came from
Train goes across Mexico
train unloads onto ship
ship sails to destination.
VS
Ship arrives at canal
Ship goes thru canal
Ship goes to destination
Yup - that’ll be cost effective!
But it’ll sure make jobs!!
rain
Silly me; I had always assumed the water for the locks come from one or both of the oceans on either side of the isthmus, when in fact it depends on a fresh water lake?
All this just goes to show, again, why the USA should have never given the Panama Canal to the local government.
Yes, the cost and equipment to pump trillions of gallons of water into the locks is unfeasible. Filling the locks by gravity requires freshwater lakes at a higher altitude.
Now the cartels can employ some train robbers to steal goods and more sugglers to transport human sex slaves and drugs coast to coast.
Exactly, the new locks use (waste) a lot more water, while the supply did not increase.
BTW, Punta Arenas, the main port in Straight of Magellan is the biggest benefactor of this blunder!
I happened to visit there and they were just excited!
Lots of boats now give up and just circle the South America instead waiting in line and paying the fees.
It really lifted the economy of many South American ports.
“”The Federales better guard that new rail line well; plenty of banditos willing to rob that train from time to time....just sayin’.””
Exactamundo! I read the Spanish language newspapers from Spain to get more information on the decline of Mexico. There are bus companies that refuse to serve certain areas unless the army provides escort. The people who dare to take a bus carry nothing of value. The gangs and cartels do not just stop the bus and rob everyone. Sometimes they burn the bus.
Cartels will get in on the ground floor.
But it’ll sure make jobs!!
—
for the cartels
All this just goes to show, again, why the USA should have never given the Panama Canal to the local government.
—
Jimmy Carter sold it to the Chinese.
Yep, U.S. engineers over 100 years ago figured out how to operate the Canal based on the incessant rainfall that defeated the earlier French attempt to build a canal. Adding larger locks to accommodate larger ships without increasing the water supply was an easily foreseen problem.
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