What is known about the Interoceanic Train derailment in Oaxaca
The accident, which left 13 people dead and over 100 injured, occurred seven minutes before the second stop on the Salina Cruz-Coatzacoalcos route
Several questions remain unanswered regarding Sunday’s train accident in Nizanda, in the state of Oaxaca. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has promised that the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) will participate in the investigation to determine how and why the Interoceanic Train, traveling from Salina Cruz to Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, derailed seven minutes before its second stop. Currently, the train’s black box, in the custody of authorities, holds the key to understanding the incident, which resulted in the deaths of 13 people, including a minor, and left 106 others injured.
The Z line train — which connects the Pacific coast with the port of Coatzacoalcos on the Atlantic coast — departed from the port of Salina Cruz on Sunday at 8:00 a.m. on one of its two weekly trips. On board were 250 passengers amid the bustle of family travel during the holiday season.
This line was inaugurated on December 22, 2023. On the inaugural trip, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador praised the success of rescuing the old railway route from neglect, one that traverses the narrowest part of the country by land. “I celebrate the fact that there was the vision to restart it, to rehabilitate ports and tracks, to have the freight and passenger rail service ready, and that development hubs are being promoted in the Isthmus region,” he said at the time, accompanied by the governor of Oaxaca, Salomón Jara, along with the governor of Veracruz, Cuitláhuac García, and the governor of Tabasco, Carlos Manuel Merino. Also in attendance were then-United States ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, and businessman Carlos Slim.
The train involved in the accident traveled along part of the salvaged old track and arrived at its first stop, Ixtepec, at 8:52 a.m. This station is one of the historic ones on the route that were rehabilitated for the project, as were the facilities in Salina Cruz, Mogoñé, and Medias Aguas. It was scheduled to arrive at the newly built Chivela station at 9:35 a.m., but seven minutes earlier, at 9:28 a.m., the locomotives lost control and derailed near the town of Nizanda, in Oaxaca, where the route enters the state’s mountainous region.
The incident occurred on the edge of a ravine on a curved section of track. The train’s two locomotives managed to avoid falling down the embankment, but the first passenger car became detached and slid approximately 6.5 meters down the slope, according to Admiral Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles, Secretary of the Navy of Mexico, who reported the accident on Monday. The second car was left suspended in mid-air, while the third and fourth cars came to rest across the tracks undamaged. The train’s paramedic treated nine injured people at the scene, who suffered contusions and fractures, along with emergency teams that responded to the incident. A total of 109 people were taken to 11 hospitals throughout the state of Oaxaca, of whom 36 remain hospitalized. Some have required surgery.
The maximum speed of the passenger train is between 50 and 120 kilometers per hour (31-75 mph), depending on the section of the route. However, after the impact, a passenger stated in a video shared on social media that he felt the train “was going fast.” Sheinbaum has confirmed that investigators from the Attorney General’s Office and the Oaxaca State Prosecutor’s Office, along with the Railway Transport Regulatory Agency, will analyze the contents of the Pulser recorder, the train’s black box that stores the latest data on speed, throttle position, brake pressures, and other locomotive operation indicators. Currently, the device is under the custody of the FGR.
Morales Ángeles explained that an hour and a half before the train’s departure, at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, a track inspection unit reported that the route was in good operating condition for the train to run. This unit is a ground vehicle, a pickup truck adapted with metal wheels to allow it to travel on the rails to check for any obstacles or deformations that could impede the train’s passage. “This procedure is key because it allows us to detect any obstacle, any problem that could be caused by weather conditions, or any unexpected damage,” the admiral emphasized. That inspection vehicle reported no issues with the track.
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