The Mexican subsidiary of the American railway company Kansas City Southern (KCS) will develop a new rail freight logistics centre near Nuevo Laredo, a Mexican border city, in addition to a railway line connecting the new facility to the cross-border railway network.

KSC will carry out the project in cooperation with the local government of Nuevo Laredo. The facility will have thirty new rail tracks with an average length of three kilometre. It will be designed to classify goods, load and unload, store locomotives and repair and carry out maintenance of stock. The rail track is a secondary connection between the new rail logistic centre of Nuevo Laredo and the railway linking Mexico City and Nuevo Laredo. It will be fourteen kilometre in length. The project in total costs 98.7 million Euros, of which 86.6 million Euros is dedicated to the construction of the logistics centre. It will be completed in 2025.

Bottle neck area

As a border city, Nuevo Laredo plays a key role in the rail freight traffic between these two countries. KCS propelled the negotiations in order to eliminate the traffic bottle neck in this area. The trade flows between both countries demand a more efficient rail freight infrastructure, especially for Mexican automotive and oil exports to the US. However, the project was previously halted due to bureaucratic procedures.

On its part, Mexico is experiencing a rail freight revival after the privatisation of the sector in the 2000s. Both US and Mexican companies are carrying out works to launch new services and infrastructure in the border areas and on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.