Mexican Railroads

[Anonymous]

With respect to this month's piece on Mexican RR's. Does anyone have info on train frequency, type of traffic and ave. tonnage on the various lines still in use ?

[Anonymous]

Good Morning,
The TFM is probably more advanced today than FerroMex (FXE). That results from TFM being privatized earlier (so says my co-worker who was employed by FXE until recently joining my company.)

FXE runs primarily along the Baja Gulf. Their main border crossings are at Nogales, El Paso, and Piedras Negras (Eagle Pass.) Their business is somewhat built around the auto makers. See the FXE route map at http://www.ferromex.com.mx/flota.html

The TFM is more of an Eastern Mex RR. They are again set up around the auto industry. Their bigger border crossing is in Laredo / Neuvo Laredo. The border crossing choke points would provide an opportunity to see a lot of activity.

In Mexico, a great deal of manufacturing is centered in the region around Monterrey, San Lois Potosi, and Mexico City. A lot of intermodal runs in (parts and materials). Finished cars come back North to the US. Both the UP RR and the BNSF publish rates on joint / inteline moves with the Mex carriers. Pacer Stacktrain also runs over UP/FXE and UP/TFM to serve the auto makers in Mex (see the cover of the new Trains - that's a Pacer Stacktrain (formerly APL) dedicated train.

Its interesting that Trains chose to call this the "New Frontier." Isn't it really just a shift of products that were formerly produced in the U.S. A lot of that product moved by rail from Detroit, Ohio, PA, etc. Now it gets assembled in Mexico. Looks to me like a net wash in volume. Where the RR's do probably gain a little is that since transportation is such a small part of the cost of finished product, they can afford to haul the materials to Mex, assemble them and bring them back, thereby giving the RR's a longer haul vs the former "Made In USA" approach to things.

The unfortunate part is that the whole thing comes down to "American jobs gone South" due to greedy US labor unions and inept US politicians (i.e. Nafta ), oh yeah, and in no small part due to greedy US and foreign manufacturing companies (Chrysler, GM, Ford, GE, Hyundai, etc. (who are driven by Wall Street for better financial performance (ie. cut labor cost..) But after all, who is Wall Street? You and me sniveling about our 401K's, Mutual Funds,etc. Funny how that makes a bizarre, conflicted circle too.

[Anonymous]

I am interested in the Mexican Pacific Railroad during the period of early 1900's. An suggestiongs where I can locate info on this subject? nancy