Mexico’s Railway Transportation Regulatory Agency (ARTF) recently opened bids for Section 15 “B” of the Saltillo–Nuevo Laredo Passenger Railway. This 30.75-km segment lies within the Monterrey metropolitan area. Three consortiums and one independent enterprise submitted construction and design proposals. The consortium led by ICA offered the lowest bid, at nearly 11.15 billion pesos (about 600 million US dollars). Notably, China Railway International (CRI) did not make the final bidding list, despite its earlier intent to participate. ARTF will name the ultimate winner on the 19th of this month. Construction will officially start on January 16 next year. Meanwhile, ARTF will launch the tendering process for Section 15 “A”, an 18-km segment.
Saltillo–Nuevo Laredo Railway Project
Section 15 “B” acts as a critical part of the Saltillo–Nuevo Laredo Railway in the Monterrey metropolitan area. The section has a construction period of 1,020 days. It received 351 million pesos in funding support this year. The government has allocated a budget of 5.041 billion pesos for the next fiscal year to push the project forward.
Before the official bid opening, 21 enterprises expressed interest in the tender. These included major local Mexican infrastructure firms and several international contractors, with CRI among them. Most of these enterprises also joined other passenger railway tenders promoted by the government. This signals that Mexico’s passenger railway construction has entered a phase of intensive advancement.
The Saltillo–Nuevo Laredo Railway will mainly use diesel multiple units (DMUs). The government mandates a minimum 65% localization rate for vehicle procurement. Currently, authorities are evaluating supply proposals for 47 train sets. Bidders rank from lowest to highest bid price as follows: Alstom, CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., Ltd., and CAF. ARTF is optimizing the selection by balancing technical compliance and pricing factors. It expects to release the final evaluation results on the 11th of this month.
The Saltillo–Nuevo Laredo Railway Project spans a total length of 395.77 km. It ranks as one of the core initiatives in the first phase of Mexico’s 2025 passenger railway construction plan. This line links the Monterrey metropolitan area with the Mexico–U.S. border, with a designed operating speed of 160 to 200 km/h. In the future, it will connect to the under-construction Monterrey Metro lines, boosting connectivity between urban agglomerations.
Previously, the consortium led by the Mexican construction firm ICA won the design and construction contracts for Sections 16 and 17 (totaling 100.05 km) of the project. Mexico’s Operadora CICSA and Spain’s FCC Construcción are responsible for constructing the 111-km stretch from Saltillo to Santa Catarina, while a joint venture of multiple Mexican and Spanish enterprises is undertaking the construction of the 136.28-km section near Nuevo Laredo. At present, the tendering process for Section 15 “A”, an 18-km segment also situated in the Monterrey metropolitan area, is set to kick off.
