Through data analytics it's possible to improve vehicle performance, reduce costs, improve processes, establish strategies, optimize routes and times, and foresee and identify problems, among others.
Transportation analytics takes a variety of data ecosystems, helping industry leaders to use advanced analytical techniques such as machine learning, Big Data and geospatial data to optimize business strategies in the sector.
The long-awaited railway connection between the two countries depends on the rehabilitation of the Doctor Rodolfo Robles bridge in Ayutla, San Marcos, which would be done this year.
According to the Guatemalan Ministry of Communications, under current conditions the bridge cannot support the load of a locomotive and using that section would be a high risk.
The project that intended to connect the Tecun Uman San Marcos line with the line belonging to the Compañía de Ferrocarriles Chiapas-Mayab de México will not be viable before 2017.
The initial idea put forward by President Maldonado in 2015 was that the Mexican train known as "La Bestia" (The Beast), would enter Guatemalan soil through Tecun Uman, where it would receive cargo to be transported from Central America to Mexico and the US.
Three years after the first attempt, the government has announced that the railway project estimated at $200 million will be tendered in 2017 under a public-private partnership scheme.
In 2013 the National Agency for Partnerships for Economic Infrastructure Development (ANADIE) had tried to tender the design and construction of an urban passenger train and a railway terminal, however, it never materialized. Now the government of President Jimmy Morales has taken up the project under the same scheme of a public-private partnership, only evaluating the work at $200 million and not $350 million as projected previously. Diario de Centroamerica reported that the initiative will be presented to Congress.
Although the start date had been was agreed as December 2015, it has now been announced that construction of the roads that connect will Tecun Uman with Chiapas, Mexico, will start in April.
It has been announced that as of December 15th the Tecún Uman San Marcos line will connect with the mexican Compañía de Ferrocarriles Chiapas-Mayab in order to transport cargo from Guatemala.
The Mexican train known as "The Beast", will enter onto Guatemalan soil through Tecún Uman, where it will receive cargo to be transported from Central America to Mexico and the United States.
The National Agency for Partnerships for Development in Guatemala has announced the construction of an intermodal terminal at the customs office in Tecún Umán II.
The investment is estimated to be about $40 million, with the feasibility study having already been awarded at a cost of $362 thousand. What has been called a "dry port" will be a terminal for cargo transfer between trucks and trains.
The government is considering various options for the revival of rail freight in the country.
The Government is considering two options to revive freight railroad in the country. The first is the creation of a state company that would operate under the public-private partnership model and the second is a concession in tranches awarded to different companies.
A public-private partnership to build and operate an urban passenger train and a railway terminal was announced for 2014.
The announcement was made by the director of the National Alliance for the Development of Economic Infrastructure (ANADIE), Julio Héctor Estrada, who added that in the long-term they are looking at extending the route from Tecún to Puerto Quetzal.
After the transfer of the controlling interest to the State, the company will review existing contracts with rail customers.
Prensalibre.com reports: "The lease to Compañía Bananera Guatemalteca, the pipeline easement for fuel transport with Texaco, the route for LPG transport with Zeta Gas, signed in 2002, and the easement for electric power transfer with Generadora Eléctrica del Norte and a similar one with Generadora del Sur, signed in 2001, are the contracts that the state will recover when it gains the rights for the railroad. "
With the payment to be made next month, the 82% stake held by Ferrovías will become property of the Guatemalan state.
This will see the fulfilment of the judgement by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which ruled in favor of the company subsidized by Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) in 2012. The Finance chief, Pavel Centeno, said "we have identified the funds and the space in the budget where the money will come from".
Otto Pérez Molina said it is a private project, "in which the State of Guatemala will not invest resources, but will act as supervisor of the processes and of the use of any financial contributions as well as of environmental protection measures ."
The Guatemalan president's remarks could jeopardize the state's responsibility to potential investors in the project, which, so far, has not had its economic and financial viability demonstrated.
The Mexican businessman is studying possible investments in exploration and exploitation of oil and natural gas, and the construction of a rail line between Mexico and Guatemala.
From a press release from the Presidency of Guatemala:
President Otto Perez Molina met on Wednesday with the Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, head of a leading corporation in the telecommunications sector, who evaluated potential investments and job creation in Guatemala.
Plans are underway for an inter urban railway system for Guatemala City, with an estimated investment of between $65 to $125 million.
Carlos Samayoa, Controller at Ferrocarriles de Guatemala (Fegua), explained that the urban railway is a project that consists of a first section going from Centra Norte, Zone 17, to the Central Station, and a second axis to the south, to Justo Rufino Barrios zona 21, but the idea is to expand it to the municipality of Villa Canales.
Railways, an industrial park, port terminals, and roads are concrete investment projects that will be presented during the next Guatemala Investment Summit 2013.
The National Alliance for the Development of Economic Infrastructure (ANADIE by its initials in Spanish) is preparing a series of infrastructure projects that will be presented during the 2013-Guatemala Investment Summit organized by the Chamber of Industry (CIG by its initials in Spanish) for next May, with the expectation of attracting over U.S. $1.3 billion in investments this year.