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Mexico Launches ATTRAPI to Replace Rail Regulator and Accelerate Passenger Rail Expansion

An immediately effective decree grants broad powers over planning, construction, operation, regulation and multimodal integration.

Overview

  • The new decentralized agency supplants the Railway Transport Regulatory Agency (ARTF) and is sectorized under the Infrastructure, Communications and Transport Ministry (SICT).
  • Governance shifts to a board of eight federal secretaries with voting rights, while Director General Andrés Lajous remains in charge with voice but no vote and is appointed by the President.
  • ATTRAPI inherits and expands regulatory roles, including processing concessions, supervising compliance, maintaining the national rail registry, following up on accidents and regulating tariffs where there is no effective competition.
  • The agency can contract federal public works for tracks, yards, workshops, depots, stops, stations and terminals, which must meet functionality, accessibility, safety, connectivity and multimodality criteria.
  • It is tasked with delivering a 3,000‑kilometre passenger rail program, beginning with AIFAPachuca (57 km), Mexico CityQuerétaro (226 km), QuerétaroIrapuato (108 km) and SaltilloMonterreyNuevo Laredo (396 km).