Ferrosur

History

Ferrosur began operation on December 18, 1998. The original ownership group was the construction company Tribasa and Grupo Financiero Inbursa. Grupo Carso (like Inbursa, a Carlos Slim Helu company) bought out Tribasa in 1999. Grupo México, owner of Ferromex, acquired the railroad in November 2005 in a US$309 million stock transaction. The Mexican Federal Competition Commission (CFC) had rejected a proposed 2002 merger of Ferromex and Ferrosur amid opposition from Grupo Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM).

Following the November 2005 purchase of Ferrosur by Grupo México, Kansas City Southern de México (KCSM), successor to TFM, petitioned the Mexican government to block the merger of Ferrosur and Ferromex. The CFC rejected the merger in June 2006 and stated that the merger would have led to excessive concentration in the railroad industry to the detriment of consumers and competing shippers. However, in March 2011, a tribunal ruled in Grupo Mexico's favor, and the merger was permitted. Grupo México continues to operate the two railways independently.

Grupo México's transportation division, operating under the name Grupo México Transportes (GMXT), expanded beyond Mexico in 2017 when it completed the purchase of Florida East Coast Holdings Corp., the parent company of the Florida East Coast Railway, which operates 351 miles of track in Florida between Jacksonville and Miami.

Government occupation of railways

In May 2023, the Mexican Armed Forces occupied a portion of 127 kilometres (79 mi) of railways in Veracruz belonging to Ferrosur so that they could be used for the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, one of the government's most important megaprojects. The specific sections transferred were the El Chapo–Coatzacoalcos, Coatzacoalcos Medias Aguas, and Hibueras Minatitlán corridors. The railway infrastructure forming part of those sections was subsequently incorporated into the state-operated Interoceanic Railway of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. President López Obrador inaugurated the first section of that railway, a 309-kilometre route known as Line Z connecting Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf of Mexico with Salina Cruz on the Pacific coast, on December 22, 2023. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that occurred "to avoid the risk of a future privatization of the railways and as a matter of national security and public interest."